Interleaved Periodic Event-Triggered Communications-Based Distributed Formation Control for Cooperative Unmanned...

Area of Science:

• Robotics and Control Systems
• Marine Engineering
• Networked Systems

Background:

• Cooperative control of unmanned surface vessels (USVs) faces challenges with communication efficiency and reliability.
• Existing event-triggered communication methods can lead to simultaneous node triggering, causing traffic congestion and communication faults.
• Uncertainties in USV model dynamics require robust control strategies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a distributed formation control strategy for cooperative USVs.
• To propose an interleaved periodic event-triggered mechanism (IPETM) to enhance communication efficiency and avoid simultaneous event triggering.
• To ensure robust control performance despite uncertain model dynamics.

Main Methods:

• Design of an adaptive event-based control protocol incorporating a neural network (NN) scheme for dynamic compensation.
• Development of the IPETM to ensure USVs detect events at discrete, non-simultaneous times.
• Lyapunov-based stability analysis to verify convergence of closed-loop signals.

Main Results:

• The proposed IPETM effectively prevents traffic jamming and communication delays/faults by avoiding simultaneous event triggers.
• The NN-based control protocol compensates for uncertain model dynamics in USVs.
• Lyapunov analysis confirms exponential convergence of all closed-loop signals to a small compact set.

Conclusions:

• The developed adaptive event-based control protocol with IPETM is effective for distributed formation control of cooperative USVs.
• The proposed method offers superior performance and reliability compared to traditional event-triggered communication strategies.
• The system achieves stable formation control with reduced communication load and enhanced robustness.