Leader-Follower Formation Control of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

Cooperation of multiple autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) has become a hotspot of current AUVs , in which formation control is the typical problem , and a basis of other cooperative control problems. A mathematic model of the formation control for AUVs was established , the feedback linearization was then used to simplify the model to a one order dynamic system , and the control law was derived. Stabilization of the control law and the inner dynamic system were proved. Furthermore , the formation errors of two leader-follower formation controls under different topologies were compared. Simulation results show validation of the algorithm , and the formation error in parallel connection mode is smaller than that in serial connection mode.