Constrained Control of Autonomous Underwater Gliders Based on Disturbance Estimation and Tracking Back Calculation

ABSTRACT This article presents an anti‐disturbance constrained control scheme for the pitch channel of autonomous underwater gliders subject to internal and external disturbances, as well as actuator saturation. First, the integral control technique is employed to develop a disturbance observer to estimate the overall effect of possible uncertainties and disturbances on the nominal vehicle model, which is referred to as the mismatched lumped disturbance. Then, a disturbance rejection control law is constructed based on the disturbance observer. Following that, a straightforward anti‐windup modification is proposed to handle potential input constraints by using the tracking back calculation technique. Specifically, the difference between saturated and unsaturated control input signals is utilized to create a feedback signal that addresses the disturbance observer input, thereby alleviating system windup during actuator saturation events. Furthermore, the stability of the overall closed‐loop system is established in term of the Lyapunov stability theorem, demonstrating that the tracking error is ultimately bounded. Compared with some existing anti‐windup control schemes, the suggested approach offers intuitive design guidelines, resulting in a simple controller that can be easily implemented. Finally, the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed control scheme are verified through simulation results.