Cooperative Path Following Control of Unmanned Surface Vehicles Using Model Predictive Control

This paper addresses the challenges in Cooperative Path Following (CPF) for Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) in formation control, a subject with significant applications in ocean monitoring and marine habitat mapping. We propose a novel approach integrating Model Predictive Control (MPC) with a vehicle's speed coordination mechanism. This method allows for effective management of constraints on vehicle inputs and facilitates the maintenance of vehicle formation while also avoiding obstacles and collision with each other. Our strategy decomposes the CPF problem into two sub-problems: path following of each vehicle with constrained inputs and coordination of a multi-agent system (MAS). The path following problem is managed using a non-linear MPC-based scheme, while the coordination challenge is addressed through a novel distributed control law using the path parameters of neighboring USVs. The approach has been rigorously tested across various scenarios, demonstrating its robustness and ability to consistently guide the MAS towards the desired formation, regardless of trajectories and obstacles encountered.