Cooperative target substitution tracking control of multiple unmanned surface vehicles with substitute USVs

• Published in: Ocean engineering Vol. 273; p. 113903
• Main Authors: Zhu, Yakun, Bai, Jianguo, Guo, Ge
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.04.2023
• Subjects: Coordinated tracking; Distributed control; Fast finite time tracking; Multiple unmanned surface vehicles; Nonsingular terminal sliding mode control; Substitution tracking; Distributed control; Substitution tracking; Fast finite time tracking; Multiple unmanned surface vehicles; Coordinated tracking; Nonsingular terminal sliding mode control
• ISSN: 0029-8018; 1873-5258
• DOI: 10.1016/j.oceaneng.2023.113903

In this paper, the cooperative target substitution tracking problem of multiple unmanned surface vehicles (multi-USVs) with substitute members is studied. The damage and substitution problem of tracking USVs are considered for the first time in the tracking process. Firstly, we propose three substitution tracking strategies to deal with the damaged USVs for the first time. Secondly, the substitute USVs selection algorithm is designed to select appropriate substitute USVs to substitute the damaged USVs. At the same time, the influence of model uncertainty, time varying ocean disturbance and unknown parameter change on underactuated USVs tracking control are considered. Then, a novel tracking error system and a novel nonsingular terminal sliding mode surface are proposed. A novel cooperative distributed fast finite time substitution tracking control law is proposed based on nonsingular terminal sliding mode control and fast power reaching law. Finally, we use Lyapunov stability criterion to verify that the designed control law can achieve fast finite time tracking, and solve the tracking time varies caused by the tracking USVs being damaged and substituted. We also illustrate the correctness of our results by numerical simulations. •The problem of tracking USV damage in tracking process is studied.•This paper studies whether the damaged USVs need to be substituted and the number of substitute USVs.•How to choose the appropriate USVs to replace the damaged USVs is studied.•The fast finite-time substitution tracking problem of USVs is studied.