Time-Varying Formation Maneuvering Control of Multiple Unmanned Surface Vessels Using Affine Formation

In marine operations, the coordinated maneuvering of unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) has emerged as a significant development trend. This paper focuses on the distributed time-varying formation maneuvering control problem of multiple USVs navigating in complex environments with dense obstacles (such as Islands and reefs). We focus on a marine setting where a group of USVs must perform missions or navigate in formation amidst these obstacles. To address issues related to formation acquisition, maintenance, and time-varying reconfiguration, we develop an affine formation control strategy. This approach enables the USVs to achieve transformations such as translation, rotation, scaling, shear, and other combined geometric adjustments. Finally, we present numerical simulation results involving a formation of seven USVs to validate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed control scheme.