A COORDINATED CONTROL OF AN UNDERWATER VEHICLE AND ROBOTIC MANIPULATOR

Remotely operated underwater robotic vehicles (URVs) have been used for various tasks: inspection, recovery, construction, etc. With the increased utilization of remotely operated vehicles in subsea applications, the development of autonomy vehicles becomes highly desirable to enhance operator efficiency. However, engineering problems associated with the high density, nonuniform and unstructured seawater environment, and the nonlinear response of the vehicle make a high degree of autonomy difficult to achieve. The vehicles are usually equipped with mechanical manipulators that are utilized during the working mode. The accurate performance of the vehicle during the working mode can be achieved by controlling the vehicle and manipulator at the same time and compensating the end-effector error due to the vehicle motion. This article describes an adaptive control strategy for the coordinated control of an underwater vehicle and its robotic manipulator. The effectiveness of the control system is investigated by case study. The results show that the presented control system can provide the high performance of the vehicle and manipulator in the presence of unpredictable changes in the dynamics of the vehicle and its environment.