A self-triggered visual servoing model predictive control scheme for under-actuated underwater robotic vehicles

This paper presents a novel Vision-based Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) scheme for an under-actuated underwater robotic vehicle. In this scheme, the control loop does not close periodically, but instead a self-triggering framework decides when to provide the next control update. Between two consecutive triggering instants, the control sequence computed by the NMPC is applied to the system in an open-loop fashion, i.e, no state measurements are required during that period. This results to a significant smaller number of requested measurements from the vision system, as well as less frequent computations of the control law, reducing in that way the processing time and the energy consumption. The image constraints (i.e preserving the target inside the camera's field of view), the external disturbances induced by currents and waves, as well as the vehicle's kinematic constraints due to under-actuation, are being considered during the control design. The closed-loop system has analytically guaranteed stability and convergence properties, while the performance of the proposed control scheme is experimentally verified using a small under-actuated underwater vehicle in a test tank.