Adaptive Cooperative Path Following Control for Autonomous Surface Vehicles via Path-Dependent Constraints

This paper proposes an adaptive path-following co-operative control method for multiple underactuated autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs). To satisfy the feasible region constructed by the environment boundaries, the path-dependent constraints based on path parameters are designed, rather than depending on the time variable directly. The universal barrier function is incorporated with the control design to handle the prescribed performance requirements, which further ensures the satisfaction of position and heading angle constraints. The transversal function is employed to address the underactuation issue such that ASVs can follow the desired path while maintaining a predefined formation. With the use of radial basis function (RBF) neural network and adaptive control technology, the position and heading angle errors converge to the equilibrium point in the presence of internal uncertain dynamics and external time-varying disturbances. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.