Trajectory tracking control for underactuated unmanned surface vehicles with dynamic uncertainties

The trajectory tracking control problem for underactuated unmanned surface vehicles (USV) was addressed, and the control system took account of the uncertain influences induced by model perturbation, external disturbance, etc. By introducing the reference, trajectory was generated by a virtual USV, and the error equation of trajectory tracking for USV was obtained, which transformed the tracking problem of underactuated USV into the stabilization problem of the trajectory tracking error equation. A backstepping adaptive sliding mode controller was proposed based on backstepping technology and method of dynamic slide model control. By means of theoretical analysis, it is proved that the proposed controller ensures that the solutions of closed loop system have the ultimate boundedness property. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller.