Design of UUV Underwater Autonomous Recovery System and Controller Based on Mooring-Type Mobile Docking Station

This study addresses autonomous underwater vehicle (UUV) recovery onto dynamic docking stations by proposing a fork-column recovery control system with a segmented docking strategy (long-distance approach + guided descent). To enhance model fidelity, transmission lag of actuators is captured by a specified transfer function, and nonlinear dynamics are characterized as an improved quasi-linear parameter-varying (QLPV) model. An adaptive variable–prediction–step mechanism was designed to accommodate different phases of acoustic–optical guided recovery. A model predictive controller (MPC) was developed based on an improved dynamic model to effectively handle complex constraints during the recovery process. Simulation and physical experiments demonstrated that the proposed system significantly reduces errors, among which the control accuracy (tracking error under disturbance < 0.3 m) and docking success rate (>95%) are notably superior to traditional methods, providing a reliable solution for the dynamic recovery of unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs).