Autonomous underwater gliders are vehicles developed with the purpose to drive motion by means of controlling its attitude and buoyancy, with no propeller nor rudder. This thesis mainly focuses on the control of glider's motion to make it reach a desired destination in the sea, and do it by following desired paths. With this aim both two-dimensional and three-dimensional scenarios are presented. The former states the case when motion is restricted to the vertical plane, while the latter includes the full motion. First, a mathematical model of the glider is given. Then the control strategy used is detailed and discussed, and afterwards the guidance algorithms implemented to achieve the target point are presented. In the 2D case guidance can be accomplished focusing on pitch control, while in the 3D case turning is also needed hence introduced. Finally the whole system is implemented using Matlab/Simulink, and several representative simulations are shown and used to validate the proper behaviour of the glider.

Outgoing