Three-dimensional Path-following Control of Underactuated Autonomous Underwater Vehicle with Command Filtered Backstepping

This paper studies the path-following control problem for an autonomous underwater vehicle(AUV) in the three-dimensional space. With the three-dimensional path-following error model established based on the virtual guidance law, a path-following controller is designed using the command filtered backstepping method. The derivative of virtual control can be obtained by a second-order filter, which avoids the complexity to compute the analytic derivative of the virtual control, and filters out high frequency measurement noise to keep the control system more robust. A filtering error compensation loop is designed to guarantee the approximation precision between the filtered signal and the command virtual control. The robust terms are designed through Lyapunov stability theorem, then the closed-loop of path-following error system is proved asympotic stability. Finally, simulation results illustrate the good robustness of the proposed controller under noise disturbances, and accurate tracking ability in the three-dimensional space.