Formation path-following control of multi-AUV systems with adaptation of reference speed

Abstract

The paper addresses the formation path-following control problem for multiple underactuated autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) subject to control constraints and measurement errors. A new leader-follower formation path-following control scheme for AUVs networked by sampled-data information is proposed. The scheme includes control laws for AUVs acting as followers, a mechanism for adaptation of the reference speed of the group to the current value of the path curvature via regulating the linear speed of a virtual vehicle (target) followed by the formation leader, and a simple communication scheme for information exchange between AUVs. Feedback controllers for AUVs are designed as gain-scheduling ones. For each scheduling region, the closed-loop system is represented as a sampled-data model with uncertainties, constant delay, and control saturation to design feedback gains on the basis of vector Lyapunov function method. Some simulation results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.