NONLINEAR CONTROL OF UNDERWATER VEHICLE APPLIED TO INSPECT DAMS

Hydroelectric power plants must ensure the uninterrupted supply of energy, so they need to ensure the health of their facilities conducting inspection activities and maintenance. Specifically in relation to submerged plants, the use of divers involves high risk. In this sense, the automated inspection of such facilities through underwater vehicles can be a satisfactory solution. This article presents a comparison between two control techniques applied to the above vehicles, where they are vital components for the satisfactory performance of the mission developed by the robot. Thus, such strategies are responsible for ensuring two task requirements. The first one is to ensure that the vehicle can escape from velocity gradient caused by the water intake in the dams, while the second one is to generate a trajectory that allows a desired positioning of the vehicle. In other words, the mission should produce a sufficiently rapid movement to escape the suction caused by the water intake and a satisfactory follow-up to trend. The control strategies that were analyzed consist of Feedback Linearization and Variable Structure (Sliding Mode), the desired trajectory for the vehicle was developed from a polynomial function.