Adaptive Finite-Time Trajectory Tracking Event-Triggered Control Scheme for Underactuated Surface Vessels Subject to Input Saturation

In this paper, the trajectory tracking problem of underactuated surface vessels (USVs) that is subject to input saturation, unmodeled dynamics, and marine environmental disturbances is investigated. Firstly, USVs underactuation problem is handled by constructing a coordinate transformation. An auxiliary dynamic system is adopted to deal with input saturation. The adaptive law is presented to online update the upper bounds of the composite disturbances. The event-triggering condition is introduced to reduce drastically control execution frequency and the transmission load. By combining the auxiliary dynamic system, an adaptive technique, a first-order command filtered technique and an event-triggered condition, a novel adaptive finite time event-triggered control (AFETC) scheme is proposed, which has the following significant characteristics compared to most existing schemes: 1) the artfully constructed coordinate transformation not only avoids computational complexity but also simplifies the design; 2) the first-order command filtering vector-backstepping control method not only circumvents “explosion of complexity” in the traditional backstepping approach, but also ensures the finite-time settling of position tracking errors of USVs; 3) with the event triggered control, it reduces the control execution frequency, thereby decreasing the communication transmission load; and 4) it ensures stable tracking without requiring a priori information of the unmodelled dynamics of USVs or external disturbances. The designed robust adaptive control has proven to enable USVs to track the desired trajectory while guaranteeing the closed-loop stability in a finite time and avoiding Zeno behavior. Simulation and comparation results demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed control strategy.