LOS Guidance Law for Unmanned Surface Vehicle Path Following with Unknown Time-Varying Sideslip Compensation

This paper proposes a new approach to solving the path-following problem for underdriven unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) with unknown sideslip angles. The method employs a sideslip observer to estimate and compensate for time-varying sideslip angles caused by external perturbations or curved paths, and further incorporates the line-of-sight (LOS) guidance law to deliver a path-following guidance scheme. The methodology rests on the theory of cascade stability and ensures the global asymptotic stability of the closed-loop system. Experimental results have verified the validity of the approach.