Adaptive neural dynamic surface composite control for path following of underactuated vessels with fixed-time convergence

Abstract

The article discusses the path following control issue for underactuated marine surface vessels (MSVs) subject to nonlinear uncertainties. Firstly, the tracking goal of MSVs will be changed from the earth-fixed position to the line-of-sight (LOS) angle with the aid of LOS approach. To deal with the nonlinear uncertainties existing in MSVs, radial basis function neural networks (RBFNNs) are utilized. In particular, the fixed-time serial–parallel estimation models are used to boost the approximation of RBFNNs and determine whether RBFNNs really estimate the unknown nonlinearities by using the forecast and the track biases to change the weight of RBFNNs. Then, a fixed-time filter is produced to handle the ‘explosion of complex’ issue and improve the structure of the developed controller. In addition, the function tanh with smooth derivative function is utilized to overcome the singularity issue of the virtual controller derivations caused by fixed-time control. Finally, an adaptive neural fixed-time dynamic surface composite control method is developed for the path following control problem based on the adaptive backstepping control technique. The stability analysis results show the yaw angle ψ converges to the LOS angle ψs when t≥TS where Ts given later is not determined by the system initial variables. The system internal variables also reach a bounded compact set, which indicates the RBFNNs indeed estimate the uncertainties existing in MSVs by using fixed-time serial–parallel estimation models. And comparation simulation results also certificate the utilizability of the developed controller.