Fully distributed dynamic event-triggered formation-containment control for networked unmanned surface vehicles with...

Area of Science:

• Robotics
• Control Systems
• Marine Engineering

Background:

• Formation-containment control (FCC) is crucial for networked unmanned surface vehicles (USVs).
• Complex marine environments and communication interruptions pose significant challenges to FCC implementation in USVs.
• Existing control methods often struggle with reliability under intermittent communication.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate an intermittent dynamic event-triggered control scheme for USVs.
• To enhance the robustness of FCC for USVs facing communication interruptions.
• To reduce the update frequency of control signals while ensuring system stability.

Main Methods:

• Development of a two-layer control architecture with synchronous sub-layers.
• Implementation of an intermittent communications-based formation tracking controller for leader USVs.
• Integration of a dynamic event-triggered mechanism (DETM) with computable minimum inter-event time (MIET).
• Proposal of an intermittent DETM-based controller for follower USVs to achieve containment.

Main Results:

• The proposed scheme enables leader USVs to form desired patterns while tracking a virtual leader under intermittent communication.
• Follower USVs can achieve containment missions effectively using the intermittent DETM-based controller.
• The control strategy reduces control signal updates and does not require global information, utilizing time-varying gains.
• Simulations demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the developed control scheme.

Conclusions:

• The intermittent dynamic event-triggered control scheme significantly improves USV endurance against communication interruptions.
• The method provides a robust and efficient solution for formation-containment control in challenging marine environments.
• The DETM effectively reduces communication load while maintaining control performance.