A robust nonlinear control design for remotely operated vehicle depth control systems

In this paper, an input-output linearisation controller with an adaptive fuzzy outer loop is applied to the depth control of a nonlinear Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV). The adaptive fuzzy system is added to increase the robustness as well as add 'intelligence' to conventional input-output controllers. The free control parameters are selected using multi-objective fuzzy genetic algorithm optimisation. Simulation results are presented which demonstrate that the proposed control scheme can enhance the closed-loop system performance by reducing the output tracking errors.