Event-Triggered Dynamic Positioning for Mass-Switched Unmanned Marine Vehicles in Network Environments

This article is concerned with event-triggered dynamic positioning for a mass-switched unmanned marine vehicle (UMV) in network environments. First, a switched dynamic positioning system (DPS) model for a mass-switched marine vehicle is established. The switched DPS model takes into consideration changes in the marine vehicle's mass and the resultant switching of the marine vehicle's parameters. Second, for a mass-switched UMV controlled through a communication network, a novel weighted event-triggering communication scheme considering switching features is proposed. The weighted error data of multiple sampling instants are utilized to avoid a long-time nontriggering phenomenon. The consideration of switching features guarantees the current sampled data to be transmitted if a switch occurs between the last sampling instant and the current sampling instant. Then, under the event-triggering scheme, an asynchronously switched DPS model for the mass-switched UMV is established in network environments. Based on this model, a mode-dependent DPS controller and event generator co-design method are proposed to attenuate the disturbance induced by wind, waves, and ocean currents. The DPS performance analysis demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method.