Autonomous Trajectory Tracking Integrated Control of Unmanned Surface Vessel

Abstract

Trajectory tracking control of unmanned surface vessels (USVs) has become a popular topic. Regarding the problem of ship collision avoidance encountered in trajectory tracking, more attention needs to be paid to the algorithm application, namely the characteristics of flexibility and accessibility. Thus, a fusion framework of field theoretical planning and a model predictive control (MPC) algorithm is proposed in this paper to obtain a realizable collision-free tracking trajectory, where the trajectory smoothness and collision avoidance constraints under a complex environment need to be considered. Through the designed fast matching (FM) method based on the electric field model, the algorithm gains the direction trend of collision avoidance planning and then combines it with a flexible distance to reconstruct the architecture of the MPC and constraint system, generating the optimal trajectory tracking controller. The new algorithm was tested and validated for several situations, and it can potentially be developed to advance collision-free trajectory tracking navigation in multivessel situations.