Serret-Frenet frame based on path following control for underactuated unmanned surface vehicles with dynamic uncertainties

The path following problem for an underactuated unmanned surface vehicle (USV) in the Serret-Frenet frame is addressed. The control system takes account of the uncertain influence induced by model perturbation, external disturbance, etc. By introducing the Serret-Frenet frame and global coordinate transformation, the control problem of underactuated system (a nonlinear system with single-input and ternate-output) is transformed into the control problem of actuated system (a single-input and single-output nonlinear system), which simplifies the controller design. A backstepping adaptive sliding mode controller (BADSMC) is proposed based on backstepping design technique, adaptive method and theory of dynamic slide model control (DSMC). Then, it is proven that the state of closed loop system is globally stabilized to the desired configuration with the proposed controller. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller.