A hierarchical LFFC control scheme for underactuated unmanned surface vessels based on unreliable communication interaction

This article investigates the leader-follower formation-containment (LFFC) control issue of underactuated unmanned surface vessels (USVs) system subject to unreliable communication interaction and the external disturbances. Firstly, an adaptive control scheme is established for the leaders to track the desired trajectory associated with preset formation configuration. Subsequently, by means of convex hull theory, a formation-containment control algorithm is developed to guide the followers into the specific area generated by the leaders. Nevertheless, the communication interaction among USVs is frequently unreliable, which is constrained by communication distance, equipment quality, and indeterminate cyber-attack. Worse still, this unreliability will magnify the unpredictable impact on system stability. Moreover, the signals generally undergo multilevel transmission from virtual leader to followers under LFFC structure, which will result in the amplification of unreliable ratio during the information transmissions. To address the aforementioned issues, an online-update auxiliary signal is constructed through the quasi-sliding mode manifold, which can suppress the impact of unreliable communication interaction. Theoretical analysis and numerical simulations are demonstrated to verify the feasibility and validity of the proposed control strategies.