Effects of positional information time lags on motion stability of autonomous vehicles.

Abstract

Highly maneuverable ocean going vehicles require quick response, control, and guidance to maintain accurate track keeping characteristics. Ocean vehicles, however, may experience significant lags in their inertial positional information that limit their reaction times. This thesis investigates the effects of these lags on guidance and control. The relationship of critical visibility versus the controller time constant and its effect on the stability of the guidance/control scheme is analyzed. Results are presented based on time domain and frequency response techniques using a dynamic model of the Naval Postgraduate School Autonomous Underwater Vehicle II (NPS AUV II), for which a complete set of hydrodynamic coefficients and geometric properties is available.