Adaptive Super-Twisting sliding mode trajectory tracking control of underactuated unmanned surface vehicles based on prescribed performance

This paper studies the transient and steady-state errors in the tracking process of underactuated Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USV). In order to realize the trajectory tracking control of USV with position constraint, a controller based on prescribed performance (PPC) is used. Furthermore, with dynamic surface, adaptive compensation, super-twisting technology, an adaptive super-twisting sliding mode controller is developed (AST-SMCPP). Through the Lyapunov stability analysis, the global asymptotic stability of the control system is ensured. The effectiveness of the control system is fully verfied by comparing the simulation results of similar controllers. Specifically, simulation results show that the proposed controller can keep the tracking error within prescribed performance and solve the jitter problem in the sliding mode control process. Moreover, the controls parameters can follow the change of the system and hence, the steady-state motion error of the USV becomes smaller.