Path-following control of an underactuated hovercraft with dynamic uncertainties under Serret-Frenet frame

This paper addresses the problem of steering an underactuated hovercraft along a desired horizontal path in the presence of dynamic uncertainties. First, based on the predefined reference path, the Line-of-Sight (LOS) guidance is built in a moving Serret-Frenet frame along the virtual target on the path. The position and orientation error dynamics are introduced by using coordinate transformation. The kinematic controller is developed by using Backstepping technique to drive the following error for feasible curved path to zero. Subsequently, the controller is extended to deal with the velocity tracking errors. In order to enhance the robustness of a hovercraft in the presence of model uncertainties and external disturbances, the dynamics control law is designed by resorting to the sliding mode control method to improve the tracking performance of underactuated hovercraft. Using a Lyapunov approach, the final controlled system can be proved that all error signals in the system are uniformly globally asymptotically stable. Finally, simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for path following of an underactuated hovercraft.