Prescribed Performance-Based Optimal Formation Control for USVs With Position Constraints and Yaw Angle Time-Varying Partial Constraints

This paper considers the prescribed performance-based optimal formation control problem for unmanned surface vehicles with position constraints and yaw angle time-varying partial constraints while avoiding collisions and maintaining connectivity. To be more specific, prescribed-time performance constraints are imposed on the position tracking errors between each vehicle and its leader. Then, the prescribed performance-based optimal formation control strategy is developed to guarantee that each vehicle achieves collision-free formation control while maintaining connectivity, as well as the prescribed transient and steady performance on the position tracking errors. Inspired by the prescribed performance control, an improved asymmetric barrier function with prescribed performance is provided to ensure that the yaw angle errors satisfy the prescribed performance constraints. Eventually, theoretical analysis demonstrates that the optimal formation control scheme can produce position tracking errors that converge to a prescribed arbitrarily small region within a prescribed time interval, along with the yaw angle that adheres to the time-varying partial constraints, subject to optimal cost with limited communication ranges and collision avoidance constraints. Simulation results and comprehensive comparisons show extraordinary effectiveness and superiority.