A Finite-Time Recursion-Based Tracking Control for Under-Actuated Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

Under-actuated Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (UAUV) is widely used to explore the underwater environment. With the high nonlinearities and the lack of actuators, designing a feedback controller for the UAUV system that can make this system stable at the desired point is a challenge. In this paper, a new finite-time tracking controller for the UAUV system is developed based on the recursion principle. By defining a novel tracking state modification, the UAUV system with the insufficiency of the number of actuators is transformed into an equivalent affine system for developing a stabilization controller. The design procedure for determining the input signal, which is developed by the recursion principle, is presented with a step-by-step for easier readability. The stability of the UAUV system is proven rigorously through Lyapunov functions. All the numerical results achieved by the proposed recursion-based controller will be verified through two scenarios by the Matlab/Simulink platform to demonstrate impressive effectiveness.