Nonlinear model predictive formation control for groups of autonomous surface vessels

  • Authors:

  • F. Fahimi

  • Affiliations:

  • University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

  • Venue:
  • CA '07 Proceedings of the Ninth IASTED International Conference on Control and Applications
  • Year:
  • 2007

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Abstract

Designing Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) laws for controlling multiple autonomous surface vessels in arbitrary formations in environments containing obstacles are reported in this paper. Two leader-follower decentralized geometrical control schemes that are required for defining a unique two-dimensional formation are considered. A three-degree-of-freedom dynamic model of surface vessels has been used for the controller design. The realtime optimization abilities of the NMPC method has been used to improve the response of the unactuated DOF of the vessels and to directly incorporate the local obstacle avoidance into the formation control eliminating the need for an external local obstacle avoidance algorithm. The effectiveness of the developed control law, even in the presence of model uncertainty and external disturbances is demonstrated via computer simulations.