  This article presents the design and real-time implementation of an optimal
controller for precise steering control of a remotely operated underwater
vehicle (ROV). A PI controller is investigated to achieve the desired steering
performance. The gain parameters of the controller are tuned using the genetic
algorithm (GA). The experimental response corresponding to the step waveform
for the GA is obtained. A root-locus-tuned PI controller alongside a
simulated-annealing-based PI controller (SAPI) is used to benchmark the
response characteristics such as overshoot, peak time, and settling time. The
experimental findings indicate that GAPI provides considerably better
performance than SAPI and the root-locus-tuned controller.
