Self-triggered Distributed Formation Control of Under-actuated Unmanned Surface Vehicles in GPS-denied Environments

This paper presents a self-triggered distributed for-mation control method for multiple unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) with limited communication resources in GPS-denied environments. Initially, we configure a velocity quantization-based self-triggered mechanism to reduce the data exchange rate through the wireless network infrastructure. As information transmitted between vehicles is indexed rather than raw data, this approach enhances security and makes data transmission more efficient and stable. Subsequently, we develop a self-triggered distributed guidance law that functions independently of the position information of one's own vehicle as well as that of neighboring vessels. Finally, simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed method and highlight its potential applications in environments with weak or nonexistent GPS signals.