Incremental predictive control-based output consensus of networked unmanned surface vehicle formation systems

Abstract This paper is concerned with the output consensus problem of networked unmanned surface vehicle (USV) formation systems under a leader-follower structure. First, a 3-degrees-of-freedom motion model is established for USV systems subject to disturbances induced by wind and waves. Second, based on the motion model, both an incremental state observer and an incremental predictive controller are constructed to investigate the effects of network-induced delays and packet dropouts on the systems under study. Third, a novel incremental predictive control scheme is developed to ensure that the outputs of all USVs in the formation reach consensus asymptotically. Finally, an illustrative example is given to verify the effectiveness of the proposed incremental predictive control scheme for networked USV formation systems.