Energy Tradeoff-Oriented Quasi-Optimal Distributed Affine Formation Maneuver Control for Electric Marine Surface Vehicles

A green-oriented transition of energy has propelled the thriving development of the electric marine surface vehicle fleet (EMSVF). To extend the application potential in marine missions, the flexibility and endurance of EMSVF must be enhanced for special requirements. Aiming toward solving this issue from a control perspective, this article proposes an energy tradeoff-oriented quasi-optimal distributed affine formation control scheme. First, a composite configuration constraint is developed such that yaw consensus and position affine formation maneuver can be synchronously achieved under the directed graph. Subsequently, by integrating this constraint to a linear sliding mode surface, second-order system dynamics could be reduced to a first-order one and the control input is then directly adopted as an optimization target. In this way, a quasi-optimal controller is established through the linear quadratic regulator, which has the capability of making a proper tradeoff between energy consumption and control precision. The prominent feature of this control scheme lies in realizing the nonlinear optimal problem just through two design parameters. Finally, system security is tactfully analyzed from the perspective of collision avoidance capability. Stability analysis and semi-physical experimental results show the effectiveness of the control scheme.