Finite-Time Cooperative Tracking Control Algorithm for Multiple Surface Vessels

We investigate the problem of finite-time cooperative tracking for multiple surface vessels in the presence of external disturbances. A robust finite-time cooperative tracking algorithm based on terminal sliding-mode control is proposed for multiple surface vessels. In light of the leader-follower strategy, a virtual leader vessel is defined to provide reference point for other surface vessels to form the desired formation. Specifically, the proposed algorithm only requires the communication topology among the surface vessels to be a directed graph with a directed spanning tree. The robustness is achieved by compensating the upper bound of external disturbance in the control input, and the global finite-time stability is proved by Lyapunov stability theory. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed finite-time cooperative tracking control algorithm is demonstrated by simulation results.