Fault‐tolerant control of unmanned marine vehicles with unknown parametric dynamics via integral sliding mode output feedback control

Abstract This paper focuses on fault‐tolerant control (FTC) for unmanned marine vehicles (UMVs) subject to unknown parametric dynamics, thruster faults, and external disturbances. A novel FTC strategy based on the integral sliding mode output feedback method is proposed. Based on a high gain compensator and output information, a novel integral sliding mode fault‐tolerant controller is constructed to guarantee the dynamic positioning (DP) of UMVs. An attraction region that is related to the known positive constants with respect to dynamic uncertainties has been revealed for the first time. Finally, the closed‐loop stability can be guaranteed from the every initial time in despite of unknown parametric dynamics, thruster faults, and external disturbances. Simulation though a typical floating production ship model has verified the effectiveness of the proposed method.