Trajectory planning and tracking control for underactuated unmanned surface vessels

The trajectory planning and tracking control for an underactuated unmanned surface vessel (USV) were addressed. The reference trajectory was generated by a virtual USV, and the error equation of trajectory tracking for underactuated USV was obtained, which transformed the tracking and stabilization problem of underactuated USV into the stabilization problem of the trajectory tracking error equation. A nonlinear state feedback controller was proposed based on backstepping technique and Lyapunov’s direct method. By means of Lyapunov analysis, it is proved that the proposed controller ensures that the solutions of closed loop system have the ultimate boundedness property. Numerical simulation results are presented to validate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed controller.