Multi-USV Formation Reconfiguration Based on Guiding Vector Fields and Control Barrier Functions

• Published in: Chinese Control and Decision Conference pp. 3529 - 3534
• Main Authors: Gong, Xiaoxuan, Liu, Lu, Wang, Haoliang, Wang, Anqing, Wang, Dan, Peng, Zhouhua
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 15.08.2022
• Subjects: Autonomous vehicles; Control Barrier Function; Design methodology; Formation Reconfiguration; Guidance Vector Field; Sea surface; Surges; Unmanned Surface Vehicles; Vehicle dynamics
• ISSN: 1948-9447
• DOI: 10.1109/CCDC55256.2022.10034039

This paper presents a formation reconfiguration controller design method for a fleet of unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) subject to static and dynamic obstacles. The controller design follows two steps. At the first step, based on a guiding vector field, a desired yaw angle is designed to avoid the static obstacles in the sea environment. At the second step, control barrier function is introduced to avoid collision between each USV with its neighbors and dynamic obstacles, and an optimal surge speed is obtained by solving a quadratic program (QP) problem. A hardware-in-loop simulation is given to substantiate the efficacy of the proposed method.