Bioinspired Coordinated Path Following for Vessels with Speed Saturation Based on Virtual Leader

Area of Science:

• Marine robotics
• Control systems engineering
• Applied mathematics

Background:

• Coordinated control of marine vessels is crucial for efficient maritime operations.
• Speed saturation presents a significant challenge in achieving precise path following for autonomous marine systems.
• Existing control strategies often struggle with robustness and adaptability to dynamic environmental conditions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a distributed control strategy for coordinated path following of multiple marine vessels.
• To address and overcome the challenge of speed saturation in marine vessel control.
• To achieve desired spatial formations during coordinated path following maneuvers.

Main Methods:

• A virtual leader strategy is employed, integrating a neural dynamic model with passivity-based control.
• The virtual leader's controller is designed using a biological neural shunting model for smooth and bounded output.
• A synchronization controller based on passivity is utilized to achieve consensus on the formation reference point.

Main Results:

• The proposed method effectively solves the speed saturation problem, particularly in straight path scenarios.
• The neural dynamic model ensures smooth tracking and avoids error jumps.
• Successful coordinated path following with a desired spatial formation was demonstrated through simulations.

Conclusions:

• The developed distributed control algorithm effectively enables coordinated path following for multiple marine vessels.
• The integration of neural dynamic models and passivity-based control offers a robust solution for speed-limited systems.
• Simulation results confirm the algorithm's efficacy in achieving complex formation control objectives.