Formation Control of Leader-Following Multi-UUVs With Uncertain Factors and Time-Varying Delays

This paper is concerned with the multi-UUVs formation control problem and proposes the control protocol with an additional function when considering environmental disturbances. Firstly, the leader-following configuration is adopted to discuss the consensus problem for multi-UUVs system, the leader's behavior directs the follower's motion trajectory and the follower UUVs could, in turn, communicate with each other, respectively. Secondly, three types of coordination control protocols are proposed: the control protocol is designed without additional function and time delay; the control protocol with additional function and without time delay; the control protocol with additional function and time-varying delay. Sufficient consensus conditions are analyzed and derived by using the Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional theory, algebraic graph theory and matrix theory. Finally, two simulation experiments are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed formation control methods.