Design and Motion Control of Autonomous
Underwater Vehicle, Amogh
V. Upadhyay, S. Gupta, A.C. Dubey, M.J. Rao, P. Siddhartha, V. Gupta,
S. George, R. Bobba, R. Sirikonda, A. Maloo, V.G. Idichandy
Department of Ocean Engineering, IIT Madras, India
vineet@outlook.in
Abstract—Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) are
slow-moving small unmanned robots capable of swimming in-
dependently below the water surface on pre-defined mission
paths and are commonly used for oceanographic exploration,
bathymetric surveys and military applications. With the use of
appropriate sensors and equipment, AUVs can perform under-
water object recognition and obstacle avoidance. Amogh is a
miniature AUV developed at Centre For Innovation (CFI), IIT
Madras for AUVSI RoboSub competition. The vehicle has a
non-conventional dual hull heavy bottom hydrodynamic design
equipped with six thrusters which allow for motion control in
4 degrees of freedom. This paper presents various aspects of
the unique design of the vehicle. The performance of a simple
PID controller for steady depth and heading control has been
discussed. Simulations performed on a decoupled mathematical
model of the vehicle are compared against experimental results.
Index Terms—AUV, LQR, PID, Underwater Vehicle
I. I NTRODUCTION
Human civilization depends to a great extent on the
oceans, which are one important source of food, precious
minerals and transportation. In an effort to study them and
effectively utilize the resources, humans have invented various
tools, equipment and machines. Ocean exploration has been a
challenging field due to the harsh and unforgiving nature of
marine environment. Nearly 97 percent of the water available
on Earth is contained in the oceans, still only 5 - 7 percent has
been explored. However, there has been a rapid development
in ocean exploration technology over the past few decades.
Advanced marine sensors, Sub-bottom profilers, Multi-beam
SONARs, Doppler current sensors and Monitoring buoys have
provided valuable data on the oceans. One of the major
breakthrough has been the development of Remotely Operated
Vehicles (ROV) and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV),
which has resulted in a manifold increase in our reach to the
deep and far oceans.
AUVs are robots capable of operating underwater with
complete autonomy, whereas ROVs are controlled remotely
using inputs from human operators. These underwater ve-
hicles can operate longer, reach higher depths, are easy to
maintain and still inexpensive as compared to conventional
underwater exploration methods. They have been widely used
for oceanographic exploration, military reconnaissance, oil
and gas exploration, and for search and rescue operations.
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Small fleets of coordinating underwater vehicles are being
developed which can operate continuously over a wide region
for prolonged periods.
Design of underwater vehicles comes with numerous tight
constraints. The entire design of a vehicle can be divided
into various modules: hull design, propulsion, electronics &
instrumentation, power management, communication and con-
trol systems. Usually long slender hull designs are considered
for their favourable hydrodynamic characteristics. Thrusters
are the most common propulsion devices. More number of
thrusters can provide an increase in speed and manoeuvrability
but at the cost of hefty power consumption. Underwater
gliders use variable buoyancy engines and wings to glide in
the longitudinal plane at the expense of very little power.
Sensors are used for measuring depth, attitude, velocity and
oceanographic sampling. Many ROVs that are used in the oil
and gas industry are equipped with manipulators to assist them
in underwater inspection, construction or repair tasks. AUVs
often use satellite networks for communication. Rechargeable
batteries are widely used for power supply. Above all factors,
mission requirements are the most important criteria in AUV
design. More details on AUV design and control can be found
in [1, 5].
Amogh, developed at Indian Institute of Technology
Madras (IIT-M), is a miniature AUV designed specifically for
RoboSub competition. However, the design of the vehicle has
been kept modular for an easy upgrade to a shallow depth
industrial exploration vehicle. The project has been supported
by the Centre For Innovation, IIT-M and the National Institute
of Ocean Technology (NIOT), Chennai. RoboSub is an inter-
national AUV competition organized annually by AUVSI at
San Diego, USA. The problem statement of the competition
requires the vehicle to carry out a series of tasks autonomously
such as crossing an underwater gate, hitting coloured buoys,
shooting miniature torpedoes, grabbing objects, and locating
an underwater acoustic source, etc. In this paper we briefly
discuss the mechanical and electrical design of the vehicle
and later present the control system in detail. The dual hull
heavy bottom design of the vehicle provides great stability
against roll and pitch motions. A decoupled model similar
to [4] has been considered to simulate the vehicle depth and
yaw characteristics, and then compared against experimental
results. Sections II & III present the mechanical and electrical
 (a) v1 (b) v2 (c) Current Version (v3)
Fig. 1 Different versions of vehicle design

design respectively. In section IV, the heave and yaw modelling

of the vehicle is discussed in detail.

Fig. 3 Mechanical configuration of AUV Amogh

Amogh has a modular, hydrodynamic, dual hull heavy

bottom structure with the hulls arranged in top-bottom fashion.
The heavy bottom design provides great stability by lowering
Fig. 2 AUV Amogh the Centre of Gravity (CG) and increasing its vertical separa-
tion with Centre of Buoyancy (CB). The mass concentration
near the bottom gives very high restoring moment to the roll
II. M ECHANICAL D ESIGN and pitch motions. The weight is distributed symmetrically
along the longitudinal axis of the vehicle. This is to ensure
Mechanical module of an AUV includes the design and that the CG and CB are aligned in a straight vertical line.
manufacturing of pressure hulls, skeletal frame and waterproof
enclosures for specific payloads. There are many factors to be A. Hull Design
taken into account during design, such as weight and buoy-
ancy limits, stability, payload space, sealing, materials and Amogh consists of an Acrylic cylindrical top-hull with
corrosion. In addition, the design must be hydro-dynamically a hydrodynamic Polypropylene nose cap and a customized
efficient to minimize drag and it should provide watertight rear end cap, which together provides watertight housing for
housing to the batteries, electronics and other payloads. The a front facing camera and the electronics. The nose cap has
selection of optimal shape and size of the enclosures, thus an ellipsoidal profile which is appropriate for imparting better
becomes challenging. The mechanical configuration of Amogh hydrodynamic performance to the vehicle with minimal drag.
is displayed in figure 3. Vehicle specifications are given in The cap profile is designed with major-to-minor axis ratio of
table I. 1.6:1. An exploded view of the top-hull is displayed in figure
4.
Specifications
Weight 34.5 kg
A structural analysis of the top-hull was carried out using
SolidWorks, for determining the appropriate thickness required
Net Buoyancy +0.08 kg
for withstanding the hydrostatic pressure at an operational
Dimensions 1000 × 520 × 530 mm
depth of 10m. The results obtained imply that 5 mm thickness
Max. Speed 1 m/s
of the hull is significant for it to withstand the pressure.
Max. Depth 20 m
Figure 5 shows the simulation results on a deformation scale
Table I Vehicle Specifications of 708.176.

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 Fig. 4 Exploded view of the top-hull

Fig. 6 The skeletal frame supporting the hulls

in figure 1. The velocity contour of the current vehicle design

is shown in figure 7.

Fig. 5 Structural analysis of top-hull

B. Battery Pods

Cylindrical battery pods store batteries inside and act as

a heavy mass at the bottom. The battery pods, also referred
as the bottom hull, are designed to be easily replaceable and
carry extra battery packs if necessary.
Fig. 7 Velocity contour of the current vehicle design at forward speed 1 m/s
C. Skeletal Frame

A skeletal frame is required to mount both the hulls The comparison of estimated resistance in the surge
along with other mechanical modules including thrusters and direction for different design versions of the vehicles is shown
cameras. It accounts for mechanical strength of the vehicle, in figure 8. There was an intermediate reduction of power
both in water and on ground. Amogh consists of a custom required by 19% from v1 to v2 and an overall reduction of
designed Aluminium frame, modelled in SolidWorks and power required by 35% from v1 to v3.
analyzed in StarCCM+ for drag considerations in the surge
and sway degrees of freedom. Aluminium is chosen for its
high strength to weight ratio and resistance to corrosion
properties. Minimum drag in surge and sway directions is
the characteristic feature of the design. Figure 6 shows an
isometric view of both the hulls mounted on the skeletal frame.

CFD Study
The primary objective of performing CFD analysis was to
estimate the resistance offered by the flow around the vehicle
and to systematically find a way to reduce the resistance in Fig. 8 Resistance vs velocity in surge direction
allowed degrees of motion by changing the mechanical design
of the vehicle. This would help in estimation and reduction of The comparison of estimated side-force for different
resistance and hence the power required to drive the vehicle in versions of vehicle is shown in figure 9. In the sway direction,
that corresponding direction. The metamorphosis of design of the current version is relatively efficient with a reduction of
the vehicle from initial version to the current version is shown power required to move sideways by about 25%.

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Fig. 9 Resistance vs velocity in sway direction
D. Propulsion
Six thrusters have been used in the configuration shown
in figure 10, for propulsion and steering of the vehicle. Each
thruster can provide a two blade bollard thrust of 2.2 to 2.9
kg-f.
Fig. 10 Thruster configuration of the vehicle
E. Waterproofing Mechanism
Waterproofing is an integral part of hull design for
protecting the equipment placed inside it. Amogh uses a face-
seal mechanism for water-tightening of its hull and enclosures.
A customized end-cap with grooves to accommodate two
rubber O-rings is sealed permanently to the hull. It is covered
with a flat disc, which consists of 8 co-axial screw holes, to
mechanically squeeze the O-rings and ensure water tightness.
F. Camera Enclosure
Amogh comprises of two cameras providing front and
bottom view to the vehicle, facilitating its navigation. A
transparent, watertight camera enclosure has been designed
to enable the cameras to capture undistorted images. It is a
cylindrical assembly manufactured with Poly-propylene mate-
rial. The front covering is made of acrylic which provides
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transparency and scratch-resistance. A provision for a thin
filter film is incorporated in the design.
Fig. 11 The camera enclosure
G. Other Payloads
The vehicle uses a magnetic lever to trigger a reed-switch
to instantaneously kill the mission. Pneumatic actuators have
been used to hold and grip objects. Wet mateable underwater
connectors from Seacon and SubConn have been used for
external electrical connections.
III. E LECTRICAL D ESIGN
An AUV has to carry a number of different sensors
and electronic devices to facilitate underwater navigation,
data collection, communication and safety. The accuracy and
reliability of these electronic devices limit the degree of
performance and safety that can be achieved. The electrical
requirements can be grouped in several categories.
Navigational aids like accelerometers, gyroscopes, mag-
netometers and GPS are used to measure the absolute as well
as relative heading, orientation, velocity, acceleration and loca-
tion of the AUV. Depth is monitored using pressure sensors.
Active SONAR modules are used for obstacle avoidance or
exploration purposes. An AUVs propulsion system requires
precise speed control and quick response to the closed loop
feedback, achieved using good motor controllers. Cameras
are used to provide underwater vision capability. A central
processing unit (CPU) is used to process mission algorithms
and data. Microcontrollers help interface the CPU with the
payloads. Kill-switch, fuses, leak-sensors and other peripherals
are used to ensure safety of electronics inside. Sensors are
used to sample valuable oceanographic data such as dissolved
oxygen, chlorophyll and CTD data. Printed Circuit Boards
are used to organize and electrically connect the various
devices. AUVs are battery powered. To survive long under-
water missions, minimal power usage is desired as the battery
loading capacity of an AUV is very limited. The electrical
configuration of the Amogh is given in table II.
Power Management System
A set of Lithium-Polymer (Li-Po) batteries have been
used for power supply which provide a continuous mission
 Batteries 11.1 V x 2, 18.5 V x 2
Camera Standard webcam x 2
CPU Intel Atom D2700 2.13 GHz
Microcontroller Arduino Mega-2560
Navigation Unit VectorNav IMU
Pressure sensor Piezo-resistive
Table II Electrical configuration of AUV Amogh
endurance of nearly 45 to 60 minutes. Li-Po batteries can
hold a high charge density and provide a continuous supply of
high current. The current and voltage across batteries, thrusters
and other electrical peripherals is regularly monitored through
adequate sensors and the data is logged for further analysis.
This data is used to monitor the performance and health
of various peripherals on the vehicle and use the results to
develop an efficient power management system.
Underwater Vision
Amongst the various tasks to be carried out by the
vehicle is to track and hit underwater coloured buoys, cross
an underwater gate and traverse coloured lanes. Two cameras
looking separately in the front and the bottom have been used
to capture feed for real-time processing. Objects in the feed are
analysed for their color, shape and location. This information
is used by mission control software to direct the vehicle control
system to achieve a desired state.
IV. C ONTROL S YSTEM
Precise heading and depth control is required to success-
fully execute the mission tasks. Amogh uses a discrete PID
control to maintain its trajectory. Vehicle control is greatly sim-
plified due to the inhibited roll and pitch motions. A decoupled
control model is used here and simulation results are compared
with experimental observations. The axis configuration of the
vehicle is shown in figure 12.
A. Parameter Identification
Fig. 12 Axis-configuration of the vehicle
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Added Mass
The added mass and added inertia of the vehicle have
been derived using analytical relations from [6]. The nose
of the top hull has been considered as an ellipsoid and the
remaining length as a cylinder. Similarly the bottom hull has
been considered as a cylinder to derive its added mass. The
skeletal frame of the vehicle has been assumed as a thin plate.
Inertia
The mass moment of inertia of the vehicle has been
obtained from 3D-modelling software and experimentally de-
termined using bifilar pendulum test. Both methods yield
similar values. The values of inertia and added mass details
are given in table III.
Parameter Value
Sway added mass (Yv̇ ) -29.202 kg
Heave added mass (Zẇ ) -26.498 kg
Yaw added mass (Nṙ ) -0.082 kg-m2
Inertia (Izz ) 1.1089 kg-m2
Table III Vehicle inertia and added mass
Thruster model
The DC brushed thrusters are controlled using motor
controllers which produce a voltage output proportional to the
duty-cycle of the input pulse-width modulated (PWM) signal.
The thruster model as shown in figure 13 can be written as:
Fprop = 0.0002727x2 + 0.0198x (1)
where Fprop is the force generated by one thruster in Newtons
and x is the input PWM signal.
Fig. 13 BTD-150 thruster force model
Drag Force
The drag force in the heave and yaw directions has been
determined experimentally. The data was recorded in a 2
metre deep water column facility in calm conditions. Depth
was measured continuously at different thrust values using an
analog piezo-resistive pressure sensor mounted on the vehicle.
 Yaw rate was logged at different torque levels using an on-
board MEMS gyroscope embedded in an Inertial Measurement
Unit (IMU).
The depth measurements of the vehicle recorded at differ-
ent thrust levels are shown in figure 14. The relation between
the vehicle buoyancy (B), total dry weight (W ), thrust (Zprop )
and the drag force (Zdrag ) at the corresponding terminal
velocity for downward motion can be written as:
Zprop + W = B + Zdrag
Zprop = (B − W ) + Zdrag (2)
Similarly for yaw motion,
Nprop = Ndrag (3)
where Nprop is the external yaw moment and Ndrag is the yaw
angular drag acting on the vehicle at terminal yaw velocity.

Fig. 15 Yaw angular rate vs. time at different values of anti-clockwise thruster moment
(N-m)

Fig. 14 Depth vs. time at different values of thrust (N)

The vehicle is equipped with two thrusters which facili-

tate sway and yaw motion. The thrusters are placed on either
side of the CG with their axis parallel to each other and are
used to supply the required external moment or thrust to the
vehicle. The yaw angular rate (r) of the vehicle recorded at
different moment values (Nprop ) is shown in figure 15 and 16.
B. Mathematical Model
The vehicle dynamics as described in [2], is most con-
veniently shown using non-linear equation of motion given
by:
M ν̇ + C(ν)ν + D(ν)ν + g(η) = τ
where ν is the linear and angular velocity vector, M is
6 × 6 inertia matrix which includes hydrodynamic added
Fig. 16 Yaw angular rate vs. time at different values of clockwise thruster moment (N-m)
mass, C(v) is coriolis and centripetal forces matrix, D(v) is
hydrodynamic damping matrix, g(η) is restoring forces and
moment matrix and τ is a vector of control inputs. However,
this is not appropriate for developing conventional decoupled
control. The model is divided into non-interacting subsystems
represented by separate heave and yaw equations of motion.
The motivation of decoupling comes from the shape and
design of the vehicle which restricts the motion of the vehicle
in roll and pitch degrees of freedom.
(4) Heave Dynamics
The heave response of Amogh is decoupled from the pitch
response because of its heavy bottom design. Thus, the heave

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 equation of motion can be written as:
(m − Zẇ )ẇ = ZHS + Zdrag + Zprop
w = ż
where m is the total dry mass of the vehicle, w is the
heave velocity, Zẇ is the heave added mass, and Zprop is
the propeller thrust acting in the heave direction. ZHS is the
hydrostatic force acting on the vehicle.
ZHS = W − B
The drag force determined using experimental data shown in
figure 14 can be written in terms of the heave velocity as:
Zdrag = 45.7717w2 + 16.2236w
where Zdrag is in Newtons and w in m/s. The heave velocity
and depth can be obtained by solving equation 5 and 6
respectively, for different values of Zprop . A comparison of
the simulated heave response with the experimental response
of the system for two different thrust levels is shown in figure
17.
Fig. 17 Simulated vs. experimental heave response
Yaw Dynamics
The decoupled yaw equation of motion of the vehicle can
be written as:
(Izz − Nṙ )ṙ = Ndrag + Nprop
r = ψ̇ (10)
where ψ is the yaw position of the vehicle. The angular drag
determined using experimental data shown in figure 15 and 16
can be written in terms of the yaw velocity as:
Ndrag = 0.003052r|r| (11)
where Ndrag is in N-m and r in deg/s. The angular velocity
and the yaw position of the vehicle are obtained by solving
the equations 9 and 10 respectively, for different values of
the external yaw moment which is delivered using thrusters.
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A comparison of the simulated yaw response with the experi-
mental response for a moment Nprop = -5.9347 N-m is shown
(5) is figure 18. The angular position is represented on a 0o - 359o
(6) scale.
(7)
(8)
Fig. 18 Simulated vs. experimental yaw response
C. Controller Design
Amogh uses feedback control to maintain a steady depth
and heading. A simple PID controller was tuned for the
dynamic model represented by the equations 5 and 9. Due to
the changing payload requirements of Amogh, it is required
to implement robust control which can compensate for minor
changes in system parameters such as buoyancy and weight.
The Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) with delta implemen-
tation can be one optimal solution for such dynamic systems
and has been studied for heave control of the vehicle.
PID Controller
The control law (δ) for the system is given by:
Z
de(t)
δ = [Ki ∗ e(t)]dt + Kd + Kp ∗ e(t)
dt
where, Ki is the integral gain, Kd is the derivative gain, Kp
(9) is the proportional gain and the error, e(t), is the difference
between desired value and measured value of the control
parameter. Figures 19 and 20 show the result of PID depth
and heading control respectively.
Linear Quadratic Regulator
The heave equation of motion is linearized at operating
point w = 0, assuming the system to be neutrally buoyant,
which results in following equation:
(m − Zẇ )ẇ = Zprop (12)
ż = w (13)
 function using Algebraic Riccati Equation (ARE). The state-
feedback law is given as:
u = −K1 ∗ z(t) − K2 ∗ w − K3 ∗ ζ (16)
The weighting matrix Q is given by:
Q = CT C (17)
C = [wz ww wζ ] (18)
The matrix C is tuned to a value that results in the desired
system response. Finally, the control law for the closed loop
system with delta implementation [3] is given by:
Z
d dz
δ = (K3 ∗ e(t) − (K2 ∗ + K1 ∗ z))dt (19)
dt dt
The block diagram for this system is shown in figure 21. The
experimental and the simulated response have been compared
in figure 22.
Fig. 19 Depth control using PID

Fig. 21 Closed loop block-diagram for LQR with delta implementation

Fig. 20 Heading control using PID

Let us introduce a state ζ as the integral of the error e(t). The

controller is tuned in such a way that at steady state ζ̇ = 0,
which results in zero steady-state error. The system dynamics Fig. 22 Depth control using LQR

with the augmented state can be represented in state space

form by following equation:
V. C ONCLUSION
       The simulation results from the decoupled modelling of
ż 0 1 0 z 0
 ẇ  =  0 Zprop the vehicle are reasonably similar to the experimental obser-
0 0  w  +  1 
(m − Zẇ ) vations. The difference in the results can be attributed to the
ζ̇ 1 0 0 ζ 0
complex shape of the vehicle and the approximations made in
(14) estimating the added mass and other coefficients. Appendages
The cost function used for minimization in LQR is given by: such as electrical cables, connectors and the external camera
Z have also not been accounted for. However, the model has
T T
J = z(t)Qz(t) + ρuRu(t) (15) proven to be adequate for control system design of the vehicle.
Heading control has been achieved using a PID controller,
where Q and R are weighting matrices. The state-feedback whereas for depth control, both PID and LQR methodology
gains, K = [K1 K2 K3], are obtained by solving the cost has been studied. Vision feedback based control of the vehicle

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 with a more precise mathematical model shall be the scope of
our future study on the vehicle.

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