Tracking Control of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

THESIS Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instruction, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington 11. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES The views expressed in this thesis are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government. 12a. DISTRIBUTION / AVAILABILITY STATEMENT Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. Recovery of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) can often be an autonomous operation itself. In the case of an AUV that is launched and recovered at some significant depth below the surface, the recovery platform to which the vehicle will dock is often not a stationary platform. The recovery cage/platform has dynamics associated with it which are induced by wave motion effects on the ship to which the cage is tethered. In order to successfully recover a vehicle into a cage platform it will be preferred for the vehicle to have the capability to compensate for this motion when making its final approach to the cage. Using active compensation, a smaller cage can be utilized for recovery of an AUV. This research attempts to investigate a means by which a vehicle may be made to track, in depth, dynamic motion with zero phase lag between the vehicle and the recovery platform utilizing an error space controller.