Prescribed-time prescribed performance cooperative formation tracking control for multi-USV with collision avoidance and connectivity maintenance

This study addresses the formation tracking control challenge for multiple unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) by proposing a prescribed-time prescribed performance formation control scheme that incorporates collision avoidance and communication connectivity maintenance. First, a prescribed-time extended state observer was developed to reconstruct and compensate for the unmeasurable velocities and lumped disturbances. Second, a prescribed-time prescribed performance function was introduced to guarantee both transient and steady-state performance in formation tracking control. Through error transformation, the tracking error constraints were systematically enforced. Furthermore, a logarithmic artificial potential function was constructed to prevent inter-vessel collisions and maintain adjacent USVs within effective communication ranges. By integrating dynamic surface control with prescribed-time stability theory, prescribed performance constraints, extended state observer techniques, and artificial potential functions, a distributed prescribed-time cooperative control framework was proposed. This framework ensures collision avoidance and connectivity maintenance during formation maneuvers. Lyapunov stability analysis demonstrated the uniform ultimate boundedness of all closed-loop signals and the prescribed-time convergence of formation tracking errors within specified performance bounds. Comparative numerical simulations validated the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed scheme.