A controller comprising tail wing control of a hybrid autonomous underwater vehicle for use as an underwater glider

A controller for an underwater glider is presented. Considered underwater glider is a torpedo-shaped autonomous underwater vehicle installing adjustable buoyancy bag and movable battery in it. The controller is composed of an LQR controller to maintain zigzag vertical movement for gliding and two PD controllers to control elevator/rudder angles. The LQR controller controls the pumping speed into the buoyancy bag and the moving speed to locate the battery. One of the PD controller controls the elevator angle to assist the LQR controller, and the other controls the rudder angle to adjust the direction of the underwater glider. A reduced order Luenberger observer is adopted to estimates the center of gravity of the glider and the buoyancy mass that are essential but cannot be measured. Mathematical simulation using Matlab proved the validity of the proposed controller to obtain better performance than conventional LQR only controller under the influence of sea current.