Adaptive Lyapunov-constrained MPC for fault-tolerant AUV trajectory tracking

Abstract: Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are subject to various sources of faults during their missions, which challenges AUV control and operation in real environments. This paper addresses fault-tolerant trajectory tracking of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) under thruster failures. We propose an adaptive Lyapunov-constrained model predictive control (LMPC) that guarantees stable trajectory tracking when the AUV switches between fault and normal modes. Particularly, we model different AUV thruster faults and build online failure identification based on Bayesian approach. This facilitates a soft switch between AUV status, and the identified and updated AUV failure model feeds LMPC controller for the control law derivation. The Lyapunov constrain in LMPC ensures that the trajectory tracking control remains stable during AUV status shifts, thus mitigating severe and fatal fluctuations when an AUV thruster occurs or recovers. We conduct numerical simulations on a four-thruster planar AUV using the proposed approach. The results demonstrate smooth transitions between thruster failure types and low trajectory tracking errors compared with the benchmark adaptive MPC and backstepping control with rapid failure identification and failure accommodation during the trajectory tracking.