Collaborative search and rescue based on swarm of H-MASSs using consensus theory

Abstract

Swarm of marine autonomous surface ships (MASSs) constitutes the most critical part in maritime search and rescue (MSR). A collaborative consensus strategy for the swarm of heterogeneous MASSs (H-MASSs) is proposed, which realizes large-scale continuous and efficient search after marine incidents. (1). The MSR area is allocated according to the search and rescue capability (SRC) of H-MASSs based on the drift model; (2). Based on the search and rescue progress rate (SRPR), a consensus controller is designed to make the swarm of H-MASSs collaborate to complete the task synchronously; (3). Line-of-Sight method is improved to ensure stable path tracking of swarm. The experimental verification and efficiency comparison shows that the collaborative consensus strategy improves the efficiency by 42% compared with the strategy without considering the SRC, and is 22% higher than the decentralized control strategy, which has strong efficiency and stability. It can provide a theoretical basis for the large-scale cooperative operation of the swarm of H-MASSs in the future, and gradually realize the autonomous navigation of the swarm of H-MASSs formation in the whole sea area with the development of ship networking technology.