Coordinated formation control of autonomous underwater vehicles based on leader-follower strategy

Abstract

This paper presents the problem of steering a group of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) along predefined paths in a desired formation shape. Three types of multiple paths for coordinated formation control of multiple AUVs, shifted paths, parallel paths and arbitrary paths are introduced. By employing the classic path following control method and leader-follower strategy, a team of AUVs are able to follow predefined parallel paths and build the desired inter-vehicle geometric formation in the leader's guide. Numerical examples show the efficiency of the proposed formation control framework based on leader-follower strategy for a group of underwater vehicles following parallel paths.