Nonlinear robust control of high-speed supercavitating vehicle in the vertical plane

Abstract

The supercavitating vehicle can quickly become unstable under the influence of the planing force and external disturbances due to waves and currents. The planing force demonstrates nonlinear characteristics which can be described by the vehicle state variables. Strict standards for maneuvering strategy are required for high-speed vehicles to operate, particularly guidance, navigation, and control of underwater maneuver. In reality, the high-speed supercavitating vehicle dynamics present various control issues and challenges. This article proposes the nonlinear robust control synthesis to manipulate the vertical plane of the high-speed supercavitating vehicle against the planing force or parameter variations as well as external disturbances. The control synthesis is implemented by solving an algebraic Riccati equation at each iteration of the control algorithm with the updated system states, which is a so-called state-dependent Riccati equation. The control loops in the dive-plane satisfy an $H_{\infty }$ performance criterion that can reject external disturbances with perturbations. Simulation results show that the controlled vehicle system guarantees fast transient responses with steady-state performance. Besides, the proposed controller can eliminate up to 62% of disturbances and provides the robust performance against large planing force and parametric uncertainties. This new vehicle technology with active controller offers the potential strategy of higher speed and higher maneuverability solutions for various purposes of underwater maneuvering.