Cooperative path following control of UAV and USV cluster for maritime search and rescue

Abstract

ObjectivesThis paper studies a three-dimensional (3D) cooperative path-following control problem in the process of maritime search and rescue for a heterogeneous unmanned cluster system composed of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned surface vehicles (USVs).MethodsFirst, kinematic models of the UAVs and USVs are established under a fixed coordinate system and body coordinate system. In order to design a 3D path-following controller suitable for motion control, an air coordinate system is established, and the path tracking error models of the UAVs and USVs are established in the Serret-Frenet coordinate system. Next, a 3D line-of-sight (LOS) guidance law is designed at the kinematic level, and a cooperative path-following control method suitable for heterogeneous clusters of marine vehicles is proposed, allowing the UAVs and USVs to track the preset parameterized path. Finally, the stability of the control system is analyzed based on the Lyapunov stability theory.ResultsThe simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed cooperative path-following control method for heterogeneous clusters of marine vehicles.ConclusionsThe results of this study can provide references for maritime search and rescue by using the proposed cooperative path-following control method.

Keywords

• maritime search and rescue
• unmanned aerial vehicle (uav)
• unmanned surface vehicle (usv)
• 3d los guidance law
• cooperative path following