Event-Based Control for Differentially Flat Systems: Application to Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

Abstract

The problem of trajectory tracking for nonlinear differentially flat systems is addressed in the paper. A novel event-based control methodology is developed for systems depending on unmeasurable disturbances. A standard flatness-based feedforward control is applied when the flat outputs are close to their desired values. If the error becomes too large, the feedforward controller parameters are updated based on the measurements of the flat outputs and on the estimates of their time-derivatives. The developed control strategy is applied to an autonomous underwater vehicle. Simulations show that the vehicle tracks the pre-defined reference trajectory both in healthy situation as well as in the case of certain mechanical faults.