Autonomous vehicle control method

Sliding mode control algorithm for an autonomous vehicle to locate maximum or minimum values of an environmental parameter A control method for controlling the operation of an autonomous vehicle carrying a sensor to detect an environmental parameter associated with the location of the autonomous vehicle. The autonomous vehicle can have a sensor to detect pollution concentration, radiation, algae plumes or volcanic ash. The control method is a sliding mode control algorithm wherein a sliding variable used in the algorithm is related to a time varying reference trajectory in the form of a monotonically changing function. Figure 1 shows a path 10 which the vehicle follows. Contours 12 represent concentration boundaries of a pollutant, and it is clear that path 10 cuts across the contours so that the vehicle is moving through regions of constant or constantly increasing concentration to locate the source of the pollution. The vehicle can be configured to detect and move towards a region of maximum or minimum concentration of the environmental parameter. The vehicle can be a marine, land driven or airborne vehicle.