**4. Discussion**

The results of this study establish both classical and modern control paradigms to guide autonomous submersible vehicles through obstacles in unknown ocean currents. Both elegant and simplified autonomous controls proved effective, making this technology immediately assessable to low-end technology implementations. The results are consistent with the significant body of literature on motion mechanics in the presence of unknown disturbances with the added complication of restricted path planning due to randomly placed obstacles, where mines were used in this study driving an additional requirement of minimum safe distance for obstacle passage. This consistency with the current literature leads to a natural direction for future research, since recent innovations in nonlinear idealized (and sometimes also adaptive) methods have recently proven to be natural extensions of technology in these fields.

A natural sequel to this manuscript would utilize the aforementioned methods ([26–39] in particular), which comprise nonlinear mathematical amplifications of the linear methods utilized here. The sequel should include an investigation of idealized nonlinear and adaptive methods with a direct comparison to the current state-of-the art including time-optimal control methods.
