Controlling an Underactuated AUV as an Inverted Pendulum using Nonlinear Model Predictive Control and Behavior Trees

Agile and hydrobatic maneuvering capabilities can enhance AUV operations in increasingly challenging scenarios. In this paper, we explore the ability of an underactuated AUV to transition to and hold a pitch angle close to 90 degrees at a particular depth, like an inverted pendulum. Holding such an orientation can be valuable in observing a calving glacier, under-ice launch and recovery, underwater docking, inspecting vertical structures, and observing targets above the water surface. However, such control is challenging because of underactuation, rapid response times and varying stability in different configurations. To address this, a control policy is derived offline using nonlinear MPC in a high-fidelity simulation environment in Simulink. For real-time control, a hybrid controller using a behavior tree (BT) is developed based on the optimal MPC policy and applied on the AUV system. The BT controller considers Safety, Transit and Stabilize behaviors. The control algorithm is validated with simulations in Simulink and Stonefish-ROS as well as field experiments with the hydrobatic SAM AUV, showing repeatable performance in the inverted pendulum maneuver.