Leader-Follower Safe Formation Guidance for Multiple Unmanned Surface Vehicles Based on Local Sensing Information

This paper investigates leader-follower formation guidance for multiple underactuated unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) in the absence of global position information. A local-sensing-information-based formation guidance method is proposed to realize the leader-follower formation control and ensure a collision-free behavior of the entire formation team. First, a composite vector field is introduced to design a guidance law for the leader USV, enabling it to reach the goal point without colliding with obstacles. Next, by constraining the angular rate of the leader USV through the relationship of turning radii among the follower USVs, the collision-free requirement of the formation is satisfied. Then, an attractive vector field based on the leader-fixed frame is proposed, which allows the follower USVs to follow the leader within the sensible area. Simulation results affirm the validity of the proposed USV safe formation guidance method under multiple constraints.