Boundary control design for towed cables via backstepping

A boundary control design for towed cables via backstepping is presented. A towed cable model is discretized by the finite element method into n nodes. The boundary control law is designed using the states at the outer nodes as inputs to stabilize the states at the inner nodes, thus moving backwards to construct a controller that can stabilize all system states asymptotically. The boundary controller improves the transient dynamics, suppresses the vibrations and enables smooth tracking for the towed cable system. Simulation and numerical results are presented to validate the proposed boundary control law.