A backstepping approach for the formation control of multiple autonomous underwater vehicles using a leader-follower strategy

Abstract

This paper presents a Lyapunov-based backstepping approach for developing cooperative motion control for multiple autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). The cooperative motion is achieved using a leader-follower (LF) formation strategy in the presence of discrete data transmission between the leader AUV and the follower AUVs. To address the problem of sampled data transmission between the leader and the followers, an estimator is designed for each follower to estimate the states of the leader AUV. The proposed backstepping control algorithm enables the follower AUVs to successfully follow the desired virtual frames provided by the leader AUV. Thus, a formation shape is maintained by the followers while traversing the desired path. The simulation results suggest that the proposed Lyapunov-based backstepping controller is effective for achieving successful cooperative motion control of multiple AUVs in the presence of discrete data transmission.