Autonomous Environmental Exploration and Target Tracking Control for Unmanned Surface Vehicles in Uncertain Environment

In this paper, a set of methods of autonomous obstacle exploration, avoiding, and target-tracking control in the uncertain environment is proposed. First, a secure and reliable obstacle exploration framework via multi-sensors information fusion is developed for USV to autonomously perceive obstacles in unknown environments. Second, a modified dynamic artificial potential field-based path planning method is proposed to dynamically generate a safe and feasible path even without complete prior obstacle position information. Third, a robust sliding mode control law with extended state observer is designed to track expectational target in the dynamical and uncertain environment. Finally, the target-tracking control law has been validated through the simulation experiments. Besides, the proposed methods of obstacle exploration, path planning, and target-tracking control are comprehensively evaluated through the simulation experiments in WEBOTS software, which is closer to the real world.