THE ANFIS APPROACH APPLIED TO AUV AUTOPILOT DESIGN

This paper describes the application of neurofuzzy techniques in the d esign of autopilots for controlling the yaw dynamics of an autonomous underwater vehicle. Autopilots are designed using an Adaptive-Network- based Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS), a chemotaxis tuning methodology and a fixed fuzzy rule-based approach. To describe the yaw dynamic cha racteristics of an autonomous underwater vehicle, a realistic simulati on model is employed. Results are presented which demonstrate the supe riority of the ANFIS approach. It is concluded that the approach offer s a viable alternative method for designing such autopilots.