Cooperative Path Following Ring-Networked Under-Actuated Autonomous Surface Vehicles: Algorithms and Experimental...

Area of Science:

• Robotics and Control Systems
• Autonomous Marine Systems
• Cooperative Control Theory

Background:

• Autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) require robust control for cooperative path following.
• Under-actuated systems and ring-networked topologies present unique control challenges.
• Maintaining formation patterns during path following is crucial for coordinated operations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a cooperative guidance law for ring-networked, under-actuated ASVs.
• To achieve symmetric formation pattern control during path following on a closed curve.
• To address challenges including lack of global velocity reference and unknown sideslip.

Main Methods:

• A backstepping technique and line-of-sight guidance method for individual vehicle control.
• A coordination design for updating path variables within a ring-networked topology.
• Distributed and extended state observers to handle missing velocity information and unknown sideslip.

Main Results:

• A globally asymptotically stable closed-loop system equilibrium point was proven.
• The guidance law effectively achieves symmetric formation path following.
• Demonstrated robustness against lack of global velocity reference and unknown sideslip.

Conclusions:

• The proposed cooperative guidance law is effective for under-actuated ASVs on closed curves.
• The developed observers successfully recover reference velocity and compensate for sideslip.
• Simulation and experimental results validate the practical applicability of the approach.