Coordinated control of multiple underacutated marine surface vehicles along one parameterized path

The paper addresses the problem of steering a group of underactuated marine surface vehicles along one parameterized path, while the path variables of the vehicles are uniformly dispersed between those of two virtual leaders. This problem arises for example when multiple marine surface vehicles are required to track the same path to avoid obstacles and dangerous areas, or to reduce the workload of planning multiple paths. The solution adopted for the coordinated controller builds on a modified dynamic surface control technique and a predictor-based neural network design. In addition, a new path variable containment design approach is presented to achieve the vehicle coordination. Rigorous theoretical analysis demonstrates that all signals in the closed-loop system are uniformly ultimately bounded. Simulation results are provided to show the efficacy of the proposed method.