Fixed-time line-of-sight guidance law for unmanned surface vehicle path following: theory and experiment

In this paper, the path following problem of un-deractuated unmanned surface vehicle (USV) based on fixed-time control strategy is studied, and a fixed-time line-of-sight (FTLOS)guidance law is proposed according to the line-of-sight (LOS) guidance. Through theoretical analysis and simulation experiments, it is proved that the proposed strategy can drive the USV to move along the desired path smoothly and quickly, and all the errors of the closed-loop system can converge to any small neighborhood of the origin within a fixed time interval. Then, the real ship experiment is designed through the self-designed USV control system and the USV control platform. The superiority and effectiveness of the FTLOS guidance law proposed in this paper are proved by comparing the experimental data with the proposed FTLOS and LOS.