Flexible Collision-free Platooning Method for Unmanned Surface Vehicle with Experimental Validations
B. Du (TU Delft - Transport Engineering and Logistics, Harbin Engineering University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University)
Bin Lin (Hainan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University)
Wei Xie (Harbin Engineering University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University)
Weidong Zhang (Hainan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University)
R.R. Negenborn (TU Delft - Transport Engineering and Logistics)
Y. Pang (TU Delft - Transport Engineering and Logistics)
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Abstract
This paper addresses the flexible formation problem for unmanned surface vehicles in the presence of obstacles. Building upon the leader-follower formation scheme, a hybrid line-of-sight based flexible platooning method is proposed for follower vehicle to keep tracking the leader ship. A fusion artificial potential field collision avoidance approach is tailored to generate optimal collision-free trajectories for the vehicle to track. To steer the vehicle towards and stay within the neighborhood of the generated collision-free trajectory, a nonlinear model predictive controller is designed. Experimental results are presented to validate the efficiency of proposed method, showing that the unmanned surface vehicle is able to track the leader ship without colliding with the surrounded static obstacles in the considered experiments.