Collision-Free Formation-Containment Tracking of Multi-USV Systems with Constrained Velocity and Driving Force

Abstract

This paper studied the collision avoidance issue in the formation-containment tracking control of multi-USVs (unmanned surface vehicles) with constrained velocity and driving force. Specifically, based on a dual-layer control framework, it designed a multi-USV formation-containment tracking control strategy that accounts for constrained motion velocity and input driving force and validated the stability of this strategy using the Lyapunov method. Then, by utilizing zeroing control barrier function certificates, it considered collision avoidance among USVs with various roles as well as between each USV and static obstacles. A collision-free multi-USV formation-containment tracking control strategy considering constrained motion velocity and driving force was thus established, and its effectiveness was validated through the proposed simulation.

Distributed Formation–Containment Tracking Control for Multi-Hovercraft Systems with Compound Perturbations

“…From Figures 5 and 6, it can be seen that the coordination error, formation tracking control error, and containment tracking control error can converge to the bounded domain. In order to show the superiority of the algorithm in this paper, the control algorithm provided in the literature [17] is compared with this paper in the simulation. The contrast effect diagram is shown in Figure 6.…”

“…The contrast effect diagram is shown in Figure 6. Method 1 represents the control scheme of this paper, and method 2 represents the control scheme of reference [17]. It can be seen from Figure 6 that the method designed in this paper makes the followers have higher tracking accuracy.…”

“…The advantage of the multi-hovercraft formation-containment configuration is that some of the vessels in the multi-hovercraft system with better performance and equipment can be considered as the leader vessels, and the rest as the follower vessels, and a control strategy can be adapted to converge the follower into the convex hull formed by the leaders. In the process of this cooperative control task, the followers are only responsible for the transportation task, while the leaders with better performance are not only responsible for the transportation task but also responsible for monitoring the surrounding environment, eliminating potential security risks and other tasks while protecting the followers of the inner layer [16][17][18].…”

“…Aiming at the underactuated problem of hovercraft, the literature [26] transformed the lateral thrust design into the yaw moment under underactuated by introducing an auxiliary variable, which solved the underactuated problem of a three-degree-of-freedom (3-DOF) surface vessel. In reference [17], the collision avoidance problem in formation-containment tracking control of multiple USVs with limited speed and driving force is studied, but the uncertainty of the model is not considered. In [16,18], the time-varying formation-containment problem of multiple unmanned underwater vehicle systems in three-dimensional space is studied and an extended state observer is designed to estimate the external disturbance and unknown nonlinearity in real time, but the underactuated problem of the system is not considered.…”

Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships

“…Firstly, one review paper on developing Digital Twin (DT) technology in the maritime domain is provided [1]. The following topics on autonomous surface ships are included in this book: methods of ship control [2][3][4][5], collision avoidance [6,7], ship detection methods [8,9], and manoeuvring models [10].…”