Predefined-time formation tracking control of networked marine surface vehicles

This paper investigates the predefined-time formation tracking control problem of networked marine surface vehicles (NMSVs) with external disturbances. A novel predefined-time sliding mode surface is proposed to guarantee that the states on it converge to the origin in a predefined time. Based on the presented sliding mode surface, two kinds of hierarchical control algorithms are developed to achieve the formation tracking of the virtual leader, whose acceleration in the earth-fixed coordinates can be zero or bounded. The sufficient conditions on the control parameters for guaranteeing the predefined-time stability of the closed-loop system are also derived. Finally, numerical simulations on Cyber-Ships II are performed to verify the effectiveness of the presented algorithms.