In this paper, the problem of collaborative tracking of an underwater target using autonomous surface vehicles is studied. As a solution, we consider distance-based formation control with a collision-avoidance potential function. The devised formation control protocol is applied to the formation tracking problem, where vehicles form a desired formation around a moving target and estimate its position. More precisely, the centroid of the formation tracks the target. Almost global stability is proved for the case with three tracking agents. A fully operational platform with four autonomous surface vehicles was built to implement the derived algorithms, where one of the vehicles was used to simulate a target and the rest to try to form a triangle formation around the target. Power usage of a naval vessel is highly affected by resistance forces which increases significantly with velocity. To account for this and increase the overall system endurance, the derived formation tracking protocol was furthermore modified with an additional term. Experimental results are presented.
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