Vector Field-Based Forward Prediction Adaptive Line-of-Sight Guidance Law for an Autonomous Marine Vehicle

This paper introduces a vector forward prediction adaptive line of sight (LOS) navigation algorithm (VFALOS) to enable autonomous marine vehicles to accurately follow a specified trajectory within the water surface area. Firstly, this method can enhance the conventional LOS guidance performance by incorporating the curved paths with vector fields for a boogie board based unmanned surface vehicle (USV). Secondly, the forward path length can be predicted by introducing the adaptive parameter control during the path tracking. The VF ALOS is designed to reduce in time to the desired route, decrease the oscillations during turning, and cope with the time-varying external disturbance. Experimental results demonstrate that it is capable of following the desired zigzag path, curved path, and arbitrary path orders precisely.