Leveled flight control of an unmanned underwater vehicle operating in a wave induced environment

Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) depth control methods typically use a
pressure sensor to measure the depth, which results in the AUV following the trajectory
of the surface waves. Through simulations, a controller is designed for the Ocean
Explorer AUV with the objective of the AUV holding a constant depth below the still
water line while operating in waves. This objective is accomplished by modeling sensors
and using filtering techniques to provide the AUV with the depth below the still water
line. A wave prediction model is simulated to provide the controller with knowledge of
the wave disturbance before it is encountered. The controller allows for depth keeping
below the still water line with a standard deviation of 0.04 and 0.65 meters for wave
amplitudes of 0.1-0.25 and 0.5-2 meters respectively and wave frequencies of 0.35-1.0
𝑟𝑎𝑑⁄𝑠𝑒𝑐, and the wave prediction improves the depth control on the order of 0.03 meters.