On Virtual Simulation Of Path-following Nonlinear Control Design For The Underwater Vehicle

As the computer science progresses, virtual simulation technology has been developedsuccessfully. The advantages of virtual simulation, such as, safe and convenient operation,high interactivity and nature sense of reality, make it to be a new experiment platform forscience research.The problem of simulation on underwater vehicles path-following control has become afocus in this field. Needless to say, the traditional experiment with the real facility is the mosttruthful and faithful method. However, this kind of experiment, which consumes a lot of laborpower, physical resources, financial resources, costs much time and investment. In addition,the under water unknown factors may cause damage to the vehicles. Consider all thestatements above, the virtual simulation method for studying path-following control isproposed.This paper discusses a method for studying path-following control algorithms ofunderwater vehicle based on virtual simulation. The virtual simulation system in this paper isbuilt on a personal computer, Visual C++6.0is selected to be the software platform. On onehand, the virtual environment of underwater is constructed with MultiGen-Creator, Vega, andOpenGL, on the other hand, MATLAB is adopted, through mix-programming, as thecalculating tool for the system. Virtual simulation for the AUV tracking vertical and3Ddesired path with given controllers is carried out. The specific work of this paper is stated asfollowing:Firstly, introduce the idea of exploiting this virtual simulation system and the connectorsof between VC++and other software in the system. Vega API and OpenGL is called tocomplete the interface in MFC. The system model and control algorithms is calculated inMATLAB, and used in VC++through mix-programming with COM.Secondly,3D model of underwater vehicle and sea-floor relied are constructed inMultiGen-Creator, and other environment factors of virtual simulation are founded in Vega.Then, the model of AUV in vertical plane is built. A Backstepping controller forunderactuated AUV designed on2D SF is employed in this virtual simulation system. Themovement of AUV in virtual scene is analyzed to prove the validity of control algorithm.Finally, the model of AUV in3D space is built. A Backstepping controller forunderactuated AUV based on3D SF is adopted in the virtual simulation system, the validityof the path-following control algorithm is tested.