Finite-time time-varying formation control for marine surface vessels

This paper is dedicated to solving the time-varying formation control problem of multiple marine surface vehicles experiencing uncertainties, actuator faults and saturation constraints. At first, the transformed Euler-Lagrange dynamics of MSVs are presented for problem formulation. Based on such dynamics, a novel integral manifold possessing finite-time reachability is designed, and it follows that a time-varying formation tracking control scheme is proposed. Owing to the favorable properties of the Euler-Lagrange systems and the hyperbolic tangent function, amplitude constraints on the command control signals could be satisfied by just tuning the design parameters instead of complicated anti-saturation design. Then, the adverse effect arisen from uncertainties and actuator faults is suppressed by designed adaptive laws. Through Lyapunov stability analysis and homogenous theory, the globally finite-time stability of the closed-loop system is theoretically confirmed. Finally, numerical simulations are carried out to show the efficacy of the proposed algorithm.

Automated summary

This paper introduces a solution to the time-varying formation control problem of multiple marine surface vehicles, which addresses uncertainties, actuator faults, and saturation constraints. By designing a novel integral manifold and utilizing the hyperbolic tangent function, a time-varying formation tracking control scheme with finite-time reachability is successfully developed. Numerical simulations confirm the efficacy of the proposed algorithm in addressing uncertainties and actuator faults.