Moving Path Following With Prescribed Performance and Its Application on Automatic Carrier Landing

This article studies the moving path following (MPF) problem where a desired path attached to a moving object must be followed. Focusing on the problem that the classical guidance vector field is not suitable for an MPF, we present a time-varying vector field guidance law, which is qualified for following a path expressed with respect to a moving target frame. Moreover, a prescribed performance method is embedded to the time-varying vector field law to further enhance the control performance. By combining the prescribed performance, the tracking errors are ensured not to exceed the predefined arbitrary small residual sets. Subsequently, the proposed guidance laws are applied to a typical MPF mission - the automatic carrier landing. An active disturbance rejection attitude controller is designed as the “low-level” controller with backstepping as the main frame. To eliminate the potential problem of external disturbances and parameter uncertainties, extended state observers are adopted in the controller. Besides, tracking differentiators are integrated with the controller to avoid complex derivative calculations in backstepping. Finally, comparative simulations are conducted, the results clarify and verify the proposed methods.