Trajectory Tracking Control of the unmanned underwater vehicle with a Supper-Twisting Sliding mode controller in the presence of actuator limitations and measurement noise

A robust controller for an uncrewed underwater vehicle operating in complex oceanic environments is essential because external disturbances from the environment uncertainty in the model potentially disrupt the system's stability. This research proposes a Supper-Twisting Sliding mode controller for an uncrewed underwater vehicle in the presence of external disturbances, limitations of thrusters, and measurement noise. Supper-Twisting is a second-order sliding-mode controller that combines a continuous signal with a discrete signal to produce a robust controller. The stability of the proposed controller is investigated using the phase plane graphical method. A linear Kalman filter is used to estimate the measurement error in the navigation system and then correct them.The performance of the controller and the proposed estimation algorithm in the motion control loop of the underwater robot are compared with other controllers. In addition, the validation of the proposed methods is evaluated in the form of hardware in the loop with the presence of electric motors as robot propulsions in the MATLAB®/ Simulink® Real-Time environment.