Information fusion model-free adaptive control algorithm and unmanned surface vehicle heading control

Based on the model-free adaptive control (MFAC) theory, the heading control problem of unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) with uncertainties is explored. First, as a USV’s heading subsystem does not satisfy the quasilinear assumption of the MFAC theory, a new type of input and output information fusion MFAC, i.e., the IOIF–MFAC algorithm is proposed. The novel algorithm proposed herein renders the MFAC theory applicable to the heading control of USVs. Next, the input and output information of the heading subsystem, namely the rudder angle and heading angle, are combined, and the data model of the heading subsystem is subsequently deduced using a compact format dynamic linearization method. Based on which, the stability of the control system is proved. Finally, the effectiveness and practicability of the IOIF–MFAC algorithm are verified by simulation and field experiments through the “Dolphin IB” test platform developed by our group.     

Layered berthing method and experiment of unmanned surface vehicle based on multiple constraints analysis

Considering the dynamic changes of unmanned surface vehicle (USV) in berthing tasks, the planning and control modes are divided into two phases: the remote phase and the terminal phase. According to the main influencing factors of the two phases, an improved artificial potential field method is proposed to complete autonomous berthing trajectory planning based on the analysis of environment constraint, berth point constraint and USV’s dynamics constraint. Combining with the dynamic characteristics and control objectives at different phases of berthing and analyzing the fuzzy rule regulation strategy of USV’s heading and speed control, an improved adaptive fuzzy PID control method is proposed to solve the control problem of USV, which is influenced by weak maneuver, large disturbance, limited water area and strong shore effect. Finally, the comparative test of berthing simulation verifies the superiority of the proposed control method. The autonomous berthing field experiment is completed based on the "Dolphin-I" small USV. It verifies the validity and feasibility of the proposed autonomous berthing method.     

一种基于有限状态机模型的局部转向避碰路径规划算法

针对多礁石、渔船等障碍物的近海复杂环境下的一些应用,提出了一种基于有限状态机(finite-state machine,FSM)模型的无人船(unmanned surface vehicle,USV)局部转向避碰路径规划算法。首先,基于速度障碍法和障碍物区域分层方法,获取无人船固定航速条件下的航向角约束解析结果。然后,基于该约束条件及障碍物探测情况设计FSM的有限状态及执行动作和状态迁移条件,其中,通过转向控制实现向目标位点或缓冲位点进行导航的状态为FSM的2个重要状态。最终通过FSM的执行实现局部转向避碰路径规划。仿真结果表明提出的多障碍物避碰算法具有可行性和实用性。该方法易于改进和扩展,且容易与当前主流的无人船控制系统结合,有利于无人船避碰系统快速工程化的实现。     

Radar-based collision avoidance for unmanned surface vehicles

Unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) have become a focus of research because of their extensive applications. To ensure safety and reliability and to perform complex tasks autonomously, USVs are required to possess accurate perception of the environment and effective collision avoidance capabilities. To achieve these, investigation into realtime marine radar target detection and autonomous collision avoidance technologies is required, aiming at solving the problems of noise jamming, uneven brightness, target loss, and blind areas in marine radar images. These technologies should also satisfy the requirements of real-time and reliability related to high navigation speeds of USVs. Therefore, this study developed an embedded collision avoidance system based on the marine radar, investigated a highly real-time target detection method which contains adaptive smoothing algorithm and robust segmentation algorithm, developed a stable and reliable dynamic local environment model to ensure the safety of USV navigation, and constructed a collision avoidance algorithm based on velocity obstacle (V-obstacle) which adjusts the USV’s heading and speed in real-time. Sea trials results in multi-obstacle avoidance firstly demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed avoidance system, and then verify its great adaptability and relative stability when a USV sailing in a real and complex marine environment. The obtained results will improve the intelligent level of USV and guarantee the safety of USV independent sailing.     

Blind equalization based on RLS algorithm using adaptive forgetting factor for underwater acoustic channel

Blind equalization based on adaptive forgetting factor, recursive least squares （RLS） with constant modulus algorithm （CMA）, is investigated. The cost function of CMA is simplified to meet the second norm form to ensure the stability of RLS-CMA, and thus an improved RLS-CMA （RLS-SCMA） is established. To further improve its performance, a new adaptive forgetting factor RLS-SCMA （ARLS-SCMA） is proposed. In ARLS-SCMA, the forgetting factor varies with the output error of the blind equalizer during the iterative process, which leads to a faster convergence rate and a smaller steady-state error. The simulation results prove the effectiveness under the condition of the underwater acoustic channel.     

A task-based hierarchical control strategy for autonomous motion of an unmanned surface vehicle swarm

In this paper, a hierarchical control framework with relevant algorithms is proposed to achieve autonomous navigation for an underactuated unmanned surface vehicle (USV) swarm. In order to implement automatic target tracking, obstacle avoidance and avoid collisions between group members, the control framework is divided into three layers based on task assignments: flocking strategy design, motion planning and control input design. The flocking strategy design transmits some basic orders to swarm members. Motion planning applies the potential function method and then improves it; thus, the issue of autonomous control is transformed into one of designing the velocity vector. In the last layer, the control inputs (surge force and yaw moment) are designed using the sliding mode method, and the problem of underactuation is handled synchronously. The proposed closed-loop controller is shown to be semi-asymptotically stable by applying Lyapunov stability theory, and the effectiveness of the proposed methodology is demonstrated via numeric simulations of a homogeneous USV swarm.     

无人船运动控制方法综述

为实现无人船海上自主作业,无人船运动控制的快速性、准确性以及鲁棒性亟待提高。首先从全驱动控制和欠驱动控制角度,分别概括了国内外无人船航向控制、航速控制、轨迹跟踪控制以及路径跟踪控制的主流控制方法。其次,归纳总结了处理海洋环境不确定扰动的研究进展,包括扰动的建模和消除、抑制扰动的主流方法。最后,总结了无人船运动控制现状与存在的问题,并从工程应用和理论研究两个角度对未来的研究方向进行了展望。     

一种新型无人船海洋水深测量技术

在海洋测深中,由于波浪和潮汐的影响,调查船或无人船所测量的瞬时水深不能直接作为海图水深。本文提出了一种新型的无人船海洋水深测量技术,以评估搭载RTK和单波束测深仪的无人船用于海洋水深测量的潜能。首先,使用无人船所搭载RTK的厘米级精度高程数据,通过低通滤波剔除波浪信息,而获得海平面高程。然后,基于潮汐表和无人船海平面高程,构建了一种参考椭球面和海图的两个基准面之差的获取方法;在常规的海洋调查中,该基准面差通常需要由长期的验潮获得。最后,利用海图基准和无人船测量的瞬时水深的转换关系,计算出海图水深。在海南省蜈支洲岛周边海域,利用自研发的无人船“USBV”开展了相关海上实验,以验证所提出的技术方法。实验结果验证了该无人船海洋水深测量技术。     

大深度载人潜水器低速大漂角模糊滑模航向控制研究

通过模型试验测量大深度载人潜水器低速大漂角运动时所受到的非线性水动力。基于一种新的模糊滑模控制策略,为潜水器设计了鲁棒航向控制器。在不同的漂角子区间内分别设计局部镇定的滑模控制器,然后通过Takagi-Sugeno模糊推理系统将它们光滑连接,得到模糊滑模控制。仿真计算结果充分显示了该控制策略的有效性。     

Reliability analysis of H-infinity control for a container ship in way-point tracking

Efficient control of ships in a designed trajectory is always a significant charge for ship maneuverings. The purpose of this paper is to design a robust H_∞ controller and a reliability analysis for a container ship in a way-point tracking. First, the H_∞ controller is designed for a container ship because of model parameters’ uncertainties and external disturbances such as waves, winds and ocean currents. Then, to evaluate the reliability of the designed controller, a well-known reliability analysis technique is employed to achieve the predefined heading angle overshoot (that is less than 20%) in way-point tracking. To do this, three random variables including wind speed, wind direction and wave direction are considered as the inputs due to their significant effect on overshoot, compared to other variables. The results demonstrate the capability of the designed H_∞ controller against modeling uncertainties and external disturbances in way point tracking control.     

Expanded adaptive fuzzy sliding mode controller using expert knowledge and fuzzy basis function expansion for UFV depth control

Generally, the underwater flight vehicle (UFV) depth control system operates with the following problems: it is a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) system, it requires robustness, a continuous control input, and further, it has the speed dependency of controller parameters. To solve these problems, an expanded adaptive fuzzy sliding mode controller (EAFSMC), which is based on the decomposition method designed by using an expert knowledge and the decoupled sub-controllers and composition method designed by using the fuzzy basis function expansions (FBFEs), is proposed. To verify the performance of the EAFSMC, the depth control of UFV in various operating conditions is performed. Simulation results show that the EAFSMC solves all problems experienced in the UFV depth control system online.     

基于模糊PID的深海采矿机器人路径跟踪控制

深海采矿作业中,由于海底软泥稀软,采矿机器人极易打滑,以及海底地形、海流等干扰,采矿机器人容易偏离预定路径。针对采矿机器人的海底作业过程中路径跟踪问题,设计并分析了深海采矿机器人的路径跟踪控制系统。首先提出了艏向控制实现采矿机器人路径跟踪的控制算法,通过采矿机器人与当前目标点相对位置计算采矿机器人的目标艏向角,后基于运动学模型建立模糊比例积分微分(PID)的控制方法控制采矿机器人两侧转速差值进而控制采矿机器人艏向,从而使机器人按目标路径行走;同时为了防止输入过大引起打滑,基于动力学模型数值分析了采矿机器人主动轮角加速度与打滑率之间的关系,采取限制主动轮角加速度方式防止采矿机器人过度打滑;最后通过Matlab/Simulink建立系统模型对系统进行仿真分析。仿真结果表明,该控制算法能够良好地完成采矿机器人的路径跟踪任务。     

无人船系统应用于水库水样离岸采集——以棘洪滩水库为例

水库水质监测是水库水质评价的重要依据,通常需要现场采水样后带回实验室进行检测与分析。然而一些特殊情况下,例如库区无船、情况复杂等,只能获得沿岸水样,导致水质监测结果无法代表水库整体水质质量。本文针对水库的水样离岸采集,基于自研发的无人船系统,设计集成了采水泵,并利用无人船位点跟踪技术,实现了远距离定点遥控采水样功能。在青岛棘洪滩水库,利用该系统,设置了两个采样点(离岸50 m和离岸1300 m),并成功获取了水样。在实验室内,利用分光光度计、离子色谱仪、电感耦合等离子体质谱仪等设备,完成了所采集水样的水质分析。实验结果表明,无人船应用于水库水样离岸采集具有可行性、实用性。     

Trajectory-cell based method for the unmanned surface vehicle motion planning

A trajectory-cell based method was proposed for unmanned surface vehicle (USV) motion planning to combine the expression of the dynamic constraints and the discretization of the search space. The dynamic constraints were expressed by the USV trajectories produced by the mathematical model. The search space was performed by the discretization rules with the consideration of the path continuity, the search convenience and the maneuvering simplification. Therefore, the trajectory-cells were the discretized trajectories, which made the search space meet the USV dynamic constraints, and guaranteed the final spliced path continuous. After abstracting the characteristics of those cells, the available waypoints and headings were represented as the search indexes. Finally, a trajectory-cell based path searching strategy was proposed by determining the cost function of the A* algorithm. The results showed that the proposed algorithm can plan a practical motion path for the USV.     

Optimal estimation of ship's attitudes and attitude rates

Estimation of ship rotational motions induced by ocean waves plays a central role in many navigation and fire control applications. Inertial-type instruments are available which give good measurements of the attitude, but some form of signal processing is necessary to obtain angular rates or predict attitudes. Using optimal moving-average (or transversal) filters, we can obtain very good estimates of attitude rates as well as predictions of these values. Filter parameters can be changed adaptively to maintain good performance as the ship changes heading or velocity. The problem of designing these optimal filters is examined in detail and numerical results are given for a particular set of conditions. Two implementations of the adaptive filter are discussed. One is based on a recursive estimation of the process autocorrelations with the filter coefficients being recomputed at periodic intervals or whenever nonstationary conditions are detected. The second implementation is based on Widrow's LMS algorithm. Both alternatives for the adaptive filter implementation are quite reasonable in terms of their computational requirements. The steady-state performance analysis can be considered to be a lower bound on the errors incurred by an adaptive filter.     

Design of a high performance variable structure position control ofROVs

An adaptive control scheme for dynamic positioning (DP) of remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROV) is proposed based on a recently developed output feedback variable structure control (VSC) algorithm named VS-MRAC. Only position measurement is required. Precise modeling of the ROV is not needed and unmodeled perturbations can be effectively rejected. A simple method for discretizing the original continuous-time VS-MRAC is proposed based on dead-beat response. Other important practical implementation issues are considered. The performance is evaluated by simulation with a realistic ROV model and by full-scale experimental pool tests with an actual ROV     

堤坝检测水下机器人模糊自适应控制方法研究

GDROV是用于堤坝探测的水下机器人,设计上属于开架式机器人,其精确的数学模型很难获得.采用基于模糊逻辑的直接自适应控制方法,利用模糊基函数网络逼近理想控制输出,通过模糊逻辑动态调整控制器的参数自适应律,可有效解决水下机器人控制问题.建立GDROV的水动力模型,给出基于模糊逻辑的直接自适应控制算法,最后通过仿真试验和外场试验验证了该控制器对模型的不确定性具有较强的鲁棒性,且具有良好的跟踪性能.     

Adaptive fuzzy controller design for dynamic positioning system of vessels

This paper develops an adaptive fuzzy controller for the dynamic positioning (DP) system of vessels with unknown dynamic model parameters and unknown time-varying environmental disturbances. The controller is designed by combining the adaptive fuzzy system with the vectorial backstepping method. An adaptive fuzzy system is employed to approximate the uncertain term induced by unknown dynamic model parameters and unknown time-varying environmental disturbances. It is theoretically proved that the proposed adaptive fuzzy DP controller can make the vessel be maintained at the desired values of its position and heading with arbitrary accuracy, while guaranteeing the uniform ultimate boundedness of all signals in the closed-loop DP control system of vessels. Simulation studies with comparisons on a supply vessel are carried out, and the results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.     

Robust adaptive control of underactuated ships on a linear course with comfort

This paper addresses an important problem in ship control application—the robust stabilization of underactuated ships on a linear course with comfort. Specifically, we develop a multivariable controller to stabilize ocean surface ships without a sway actuator on a linear course and to reduce roll and pitch simultaneously. The controller adapts to unknown parameters of the ship and constant environmental disturbances induced by wave, ocean current and wind. It is also robust to time-varying environmental disturbances, time-varying change in ship parameters and other motions of the ship such as surge and heave. The roll and pitch can be made arbitrarily small while the heading angle and sway are kept to be in reasonably small bounds. The controller development is based on Lyapunov’s direct method and backstepping technique. A Lipschitz continuous projection algorithm is used to update the estimate of the unknown parameters to avoid the parameters’ drift due to time-varying environmental disturbances. Simulations on a full-scale catamaran illustrate the effectiveness of our proposed controller.     

深海微生物培养模拟平台温度控制技术研究

针对深海微生物培养系统对温度条件的苛刻要求,在分析系统构成及建模的基础上,介绍了一种对系统的两级滞后环节采用了PI控制和双Smith预估反馈的方法,通过内环和外环Smith预估控制,精确的消除了温度控制系统中滞后延迟环节的影响,提高了PI控制强度,减少了超调,提高了系统动态响应和稳态精度。在系统Matlab仿真和实际实验中得到了良好的效果,满足系统的精度要求。