Formation control of autonomous underwater vehicles based on finite-time consensus algorithms

Abstract

Formation control of autonomous underwater vehicles is investigated. A finite-time consensus algorithm for second-order system is proposed, the consensus on velocities of AUV (linear velocity and angular velocity) and positions (displacement and attitude) are carried out with the finite-time consensus. Because of the limited communication range, the communication ranges of AUVs are predefined, so the AUVs system is modeled as a networked system with variable communication topologies. We demonstrate the formation control of multiple AUVs with different communication ranges, which show that the finite-time consensus on positions and velocities is obtained. Finally, we demonstrate the formation control of multiple AUVs with constraints on maximum velocity. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed control algorithms. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.