Stabilization of underwater vehicle dynamics with symmetry-breaking potentials

We show how to stabilize, in stages, arbitrary steady translations of an underwater vehicle with feedback that derives from a potential and deliberately breaks symmetry in the dynamics. First, rotational symmetry is broken to ensure stability in the momentum parameters. Then, translational symmetry is broken to prevent drift. Stability of the closed-loop system is proved using the energy-Casimir method. A resulting property of the control law is robustness to model parameter uncertainty. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.