Abdelhakim Amer

Abdelhakim Amer, Aske Alstrup, Frederik Rasmussen et al.

High-resolution seafloor mapping necessitates stable and precise positioning for underwater robots. This paper introduces a novel mathematical model for SeaVis remotely operated towed vehicles (ROTVs) and develops a gain-scheduled linear-quadratic regulator (LQR) for robust depth and attitude control. We validate the approach in a high-fidelity simulation, benchmarking the LQR against a conventional PID controller over a challenging seabed profile. The presented results demonstrate the LQR's superior performance, with significantly enhanced robustness to disturbances, greater control efficiency, and substantially reduced flap actuation. The gain scheduling also confirms the controller's effectiveness across the full operational velocity range. The complete simulation environment and controller are open-sourced.

Abdelhakim Amer, David Felsager, Yury Brodskiy et al.

Physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) integrate physical laws with data-driven models to improve generalization and sample efficiency. This work introduces an open-source implementation of the Physics-Informed Neural Network with Control (PINC) framework, designed to model the dynamics of an underwater vehicle. Using initial states, control actions, and time inputs, PINC extends PINNs to enable physically consistent transitions beyond the training domain. Various PINC configurations are tested, including differing loss functions, gradient-weighting schemes, and hyperparameters. Validation on a simulated underwater vehicle demonstrates more accurate long-horizon predictions compared to a non-physics-informed baseline