Fault Tolerant Depth Control of the MARES AUV

Abstract

Control theory has been applied to several domains where practical considerations are relevant. Robotics is a notable example of this. In most cases, mobile robotic systems are governed such that their behavior obeys to a defined motion. However, during their operations, it is conceivable that faults could occur. Indeed, this assumption has to be made in order to predict a possible malfunction and to take an appropriate action according to the fault, improving the robustness and the reliability of the system. This work tackles the problem of fault detection, identification and automatic reconfiguration of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). Although our emphasis will be directed to an AUV, the methods and the tools that are employed in this chapter can be easily extended to other engineering problems beyond robotics.