Communication-Efficient Affine Formation Maneuver Control for Unmanned Surface Vehicles via Hybrid Event-Driven Interaction

With the rapid development of Internet of Things (IoT) technology, the formation control of unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) has attracted increasing attention in marine applications. However, in practical marine missions, the implementation of affine formation maneuver control (AFMC) still faces challenges caused by limited communication resources and restricted interaction frequency of onboard communication devices. To address these issues, this paper proposes a hybrid event-driven interaction mechanism (HEIM) for AFMC of USVs. In this mechanism, a clock variable is first introduced to regulate the interaction process, such that excessively frequent information exchanges can be avoided and the interaction interval can satisfy the minimum communication interval (MCI) required by onboard hardware. However, when the clock variable reaches its lower bound, an interaction may be compulsorily triggered, which introduces a maximum interaction interval constraint. To remove this restriction, an additional threshold is further incorporated as a secondary interaction judgment condition. In this way, the proposed mechanism not only preserves an adjustable MCI but also avoids unnecessary interactions caused solely by the clock variable, thereby further improving communication efficiency. Theoretical analysis and simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.