Practical Fixed-Time Fault-Tolerant Cooperative Path Following for ASVs via Event-Triggered Communication and Intermittent Control

This study presents a new fixed-time collision-free cooperative path following control algorithm for underactuated autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) via event-triggered communication and aperiodically intermittent control (AIC), and it accounts for unknown disturbances, including actuator failures. To achieve the expected formation, a fixed-time path parameter consistency algorithm is proposed based on the event-triggered communication. Then, an improved guidance law is designed to obtain the desired heading angle and surge velocity. For collision avoidance, by utilizing the communication among vehicles and safety distances within the formation, the realistic optimal heading angle and velocity can be searched by the velocity obstacle method. Furthermore, a fuzzy logic system is employed to estimate the effects of the unknown actuator faults and environment disturbances, and the fixed-time fuzzy controllers are developed via AIC. Finally, the effectiveness and availability of the proposed algorithms are verified by simulation experiments.