Region tracking of autonomous underwater vehicles using tube-model predictive control

In the underwater target detection missions, such as locating crashed aircraft, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) often adopt a region tracking methodology. This approach only requires the AUVs’ actual trajectory to remains within a bounded ‘desired region’ centered around the planned trajectory, rather than demanding high-precision trajectory tracking. To extend the single-dive duration of AUVs during such tasks, low-energy-consumption region tracking control is a critical research focus. This paper presents the first application of Tube Model Predictive Control (Tube-MPC) to the region tracking control of AUVs. However, direct implementation of Tube-MPC induces significant control output chattering, which in turn increases energy consumption. To address this issue, a region-dependent weighting Tube-MPC method (RDW-TMPC) is proposed, where the weight of the position error term in the cost function is dynamically adjusted based on the AUV’s real-time position within the desired region. To further enhance chattering suppression and energy efficiency, this paper proposes a region-dependent damping filtering region tracking control method (RDDF-RTC). The damping coefficient in RDDF-RTC is dynamically adjusted according to the AUV’s real-time position. Using the Falcon AUV as the simulation platform, the effectiveness of the proposed method is validated.