Journal Article

Formation tracking control of multiple USVs using ADRC with prescribed performance

Mao, Wenlong, Huo, Mingen, Wang, Xiaojuan

2026

Overview

This paper investigates the formation tracking control problem for multiple unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) under prescribed performance constraints in the presence of model uncertainties and unknown disturbances. A decentralized formation control strategy is developed based on a modified active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) framework, where a model-compensation extended state observer (ESO) is designed to estimate the total disturbance and enhance robustness. To avoid the \"explosion of complexity\", a tracking differentiator (TD) is employed to approximate virtual control derivatives, while a universal barrier function (UBF) is incorporated into the Lyapunov-based synthesis to guarantee both transient and steady-state performance bounds. Rigorous Lyapunov analysis proves that all closed-loop signals remain uniformly ultimately bounded, prescribed performance constraints are strictly satisfied, and inter-agent collision avoidance and communication connectivity are maintained. Comprehensive simulations further demonstrate significant performance advantages over representative baseline methods. In particular, the proposed controller achieves a 57.4% reduction in IAE and a 42.6% reduction in RMSE compared with a PID controller, and a further 49.4% and 36.7% reduction relative to a backstepping controller. These quantitative results confirm the superior accuracy and robustness of the proposed approach.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group,Nature Portfolio
• Subject: Autonomous UAV landing / Collision avoidance / Connectivity / Control algorithms / Explosions / Field-of-view constraint / Kinematics / Neural networks / Prescribed performance control / Vehicles / Velocity estimation / Visual servo control