Model-Free Adaptive Control for Underactuated Unmanned Surface Vessels

In this paper, a method combining line-of-sight (LOS) guidance and model-free adaptive control (MFAC) is proposed for path following of underactuated unmanned surface vessels (USVs). The LOS guidance decomposes the problem into geometric and dynamic tasks, addressing the underactuated nature of the USVs. Then, two separate MFAC algorithms are used to control the heading and speed for their respective tasks. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed control method can successfully achieve the path following without requiring any model dynamics information.