Research on Sliding Mode Control of Underwater Vehicle-Manipulator System Based on an Exponential Approach Law

To improve the performance of underwater vehicle-manipulator system (UVMS), which is subject to system uncertainties and time-varying external disturbances in trajectory tracking control, a sliding mode controller is proposed in this paper. Firstly, in order to reduce a influence of system uncertainties and external disturbances, a sliding mode controller is designed based on an exponential approach law. Then the error asymptotic convergence of the trajectory tracking control is proven by the Lyapunov-like function. Finally, the effectiveness of the sliding mode controller is verified by rich simulation. Results show that the designed controller can not only realize the coordination control of UVMS accurately, but also can eliminate the chattering of control signal.