Adaptive leader-follower formation control of autonomous marine vehicles

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of adaptive leader-follower formation control (ALFC) of autonomous marine vehicles. The rationale for this study can be found in a number of challenging geotechnical surveying missions aimed at mapping geological structures under the seabed. Mission specifications require that a group of surface vehicles equipped with acoustic receivers (hydrophones) maneuver in formation and acquire acoustic data emitted by one or more vehicles that carry acoustic emitters. To this effect, we adopt a basic setup for ALFC previously proposed for mobile robots modeled as single integrators and extend it to include explicitly the full dynamic equations of a representative type of marine vehicles. The paper offers a formal proof of convergence of the resulting formation control system. Results of simulations illustrate the performance that can be obtained with the control law proposed.

Formation Control of Multiple Unmanned Surface Vehicles Using the Adaptive Null-Space-Based Behavioral Method

“…where the variable r c > 0 is the regulatory factor of the target reaching behavior. As shown in (10), after redefining the gain coefficient λ c , the expected speed of the target trend behavior is less than the maximum speed, that is, |v c | < v max . r c is introduced to solve the phenomenon where the USV does not reach the target point with the traditional NSB method and the sudden and uncontrollable large deceleration leads to slow speed and a slow change in the expected path point.…”

“…To solve the MUSVs formation problem, centralized [9], [10] distributed [11], [12] formation control methods are often adopted. Compared with the centralized method, the distributed method has become a hotspot in unmanned surface vehicle formation research because of its high reliability, and good flexibility.…”