A Bio-Inspired Sliding Mode Algorithm with Lateral Velocity Tracking Differentiator for Formation Control of Underactuated USVs
By: Jiaying Niu, Lanqing Xu, Guiyin Chen, Jinhua Lv and Yiming Tang
References
- Dong Z, Zhang Z, Qi S, Zhang H, Li J, Liu Y. Autonomous cooperative formation control of underactuated USVs based on improved MPC in complex ocean environment. Ocean Engineering 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2023.113633.
- Liu B, Chen Z, Zhang H, Wang X, Geng T, Su H, Zhao J. Collective dynamics and control for multiple unmanned surface vessels. IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology 2020. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1905.01215.
- Dong Z, Ding Y, Liu W, Hu Z, Lu S, Liu Y. Manoeuvreability parameter identification of a water-jet USV based on truncated weighted LSSVM integrated with adaptive mutation PSO algorithm. Ocean Engineering 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2025.120474.
- Lapandic D, Verginis C, Dimarogonas D, Wahlberg. Kinodynamic motion planning via funnel control for underactuated unmanned surface vehicles. IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology 2024. https://doi.org/10.1109/TCST.2024.3396027.
- Batkovic I, Ali M, Falcone P, Zanon M. Safe trajectory tracking in uncertain environments. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control 2023. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2001.11602.
- Dong Z, Tan F, Zhou W, Wang B, Liu Y. Distributed formation control of underactuated UMVs based on nonlinear model prediction algorithm with obstacle avoidance strategy incorporating relative velocity constraints. Ocean Engineering 2024. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2024.119272.
- Przybylski M. Validation of control of course and depth of biomimetic underwater vehicle with two side and two tail fins. Polish Maritime Research 2025. https://doi.org/10.2478/pomr-2025-0033.
- Taner M, Gursel T. A comparative study of biomimicry-inspired design forms for autonomous underwater vehicles. Polish Maritime Research 2025. https://doi.org/10.2478/pomr-2025-0034.
- Qin J, Du J. Minimum-learning-parameter-based adaptive finite-time trajectory tracking event-triggered control for underactuated surface vessels with parametric uncertainties. Ocean Engineering 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2023.113634.
- Meng J, Tan H, Jiang L, Qian C, Xiao H, Hu Z, Li G. Robust finite-time sliding mode control of unmanned surface vehicle with active compensation of pose estimation uncertainty. Ocean Engineering 2024. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2024.117831.
- Dong Z, Tan F, Yu M, Xiong Y, Li Z. A bio-inspired sliding mode method for autonomous cooperative formation control of underactuated USVs with ocean environment disturbances. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering 2024. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse12091607.
- Yang W, Shen T, Pan T, Hu G, Xu D. Distributed model predictive consensus control of unmanned surface vehicles with post-verification. Drones 2023. https://doi.org/10.3390/drones7010042.
- Li J, Fu MY, Xu YJ. Disturbance-observer-based adaptive prescribed performance formation tracking control for multiple underactuated surface vehicles. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering 2024. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse12071136.
- Dong Z, Qi S, Yu M, Zhang Z, Zhang H, Li J, Liu Y. An improved dynamic surface sliding mode method for autonomous cooperative formation control of underactuated USVs with complex marine environment disturbances. Polish Maritime Research 2022. https://doi.org/10.2478/pomr-2022-0025.
- Zhang Q, Zhang SH, Liu Y, Zhang Y, Hu Y. Adaptive terminal sliding mode control for USV-ROVs formation under deceptive attacks. Frontiers in Marine Science 2024. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2024.1320361.
- Duan H, Yuan Y, Zeng Z. Distributed robust learning control for multiple unmanned surface vessels with fixed-time prescribed performance. IEEE Transactions on Systems Man Cybernetics-Systems 2024. https://doi.org/10.1109/TSMC.2023.3321119.
- Sui B, Zhang J, Liu Z, Wei J. Distributed prescribed-time cooperative formation tracking control of networked unmanned surface vessels under directed graph. Ocean Engineering 2024. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2024.117993.
- Chang Z, Yao X, Park J. Fixed-time formation tracking for unmanned surface vehicles: A multi-layer neural networks approach. Neurocomputing 2024. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neucom.2024.128220.
- Piskur P, Szymak P, Kitowski Z, Flis L. Influence of fin’s material capabilities on the propulsion system of biomimetic underwater vehicle. Polish Maritime Research 2020. https://doi.org/10.2478/pomr-2020-0078.
- Zhang H, Zhang X, Xu H, Soares C. Cooperative path following control of USV-UAVs with genetic algorithm extended state observer. Ocean Engineering 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2025.120332.
- Cai W, Zhou X, Li Y, Qiu A. Event-triggered predefined-time neural network fault-tolerant formation control of uncertain heterogeneous USV-UAV systems. Ocean Engineering 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2025.120775.
- Li F, Liu Z, Zhu Q. Adaptive fuzzy finite-time control for a QUAV with tracking error constraints and unknown actuator faults. Aerospace Science and Technology 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ast.2025.110054.
- Mu D, Li L, Wang G, Fan Y, Zhao Y, Sun X. State constrained control strategy for unmanned surface vehicle trajectory tracking based on improved barrier Lyapunov function. Ocean Engineering 2023. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2023.114276.
- Zhang S, Zhang Q, Xu L, Xu S, Zhang Y, Hu Y. Dynamic sliding mode formation control of unmanned surface vehicles under actuator failure. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering 2025. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse13040657.
- Li M, Guo C, Yu H, Yuan Y. Line-of-sight-based global finite-time stable path following control of unmanned surface vehicles with actuator saturation. ISA Transactions 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isatra.2021.07.009.
- Nie J, Zhang X, Wang H, Sheng C, Zhang C, Zhang C. Anti-saturation distributed fixed-time prescribed performance sliding mode formation control based on FXESO for uncertain USVs. Ocean Engineering 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2024.120101.
- Ning J, Huang Y, Liu Z, Li W, Wei X. Adaptive distributed heterogeneous formation control for UAV-USVs with input quantisation. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering 2024. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse12060975.
- Fossen T, Breivik M, Skjetne R. Line-of-sight path following of underactuated marine craft. IFAC Proceedings Volumes 2003. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1474-6670(17)37809-6.
- Hodgkin A, Huxley A. A quantitative description of membrane current and its application to conduction and excitation in nerve. The Journal of Physiology 1952. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0092-8240(05)80004-7.
- Mohammadi A, Tavakoli M, Marquez H, Hashemzadeh F. Nonlinear disturbance observer design of robotic manipulators. Control Engineering Practice 2013. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conengprac.2012.10.008.
- Zhu Y, Qiao J, Guo L. Adaptive sliding mode disturbance observer-based composite control with prescribed performance of space manipulators for target capturing. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics 2018. https://doi.org/10.1109/TIE.2018.2838065.
- Do K, Pan J. Global robust adaptive path following of underactuated ships. Automatica 2006. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.automatica.2006.04.026.
Language: English
Page range: 28 - 41
Published on: May 6, 2026
Published by: Gdansk University of Technology
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 4 issues per year
Keywords:
Related subjects:
© 2026 Jiaying Niu, Lanqing Xu, Guiyin Chen, Jinhua Lv, Yiming Tang, published by Gdansk University of Technology
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.