Fixed-time formation tracking for unmanned surface vehicles: A multi-layer neural networks approach

This paper investigates the distributed fixed-time formation problem of unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) in the presence of external disturbances, model uncertainties, input saturation and quantization constraints. To deal with the problem, a fixed-time sliding-mode control algorithm is proposed, where multi-layer neural networks (MNNs) are designed to approximate the unknown dynamics and composite disturbances of the system. The proposed MNNs combine the advantages of fuzzy neural networks (FNNs) and radial basis function neural networks (RBFNNs), exhibiting robust dynamic characteristics. Furthermore, the non-singular fast terminal sliding mode (NFTSM) is integrated into the fixed-time control framework to improve the robustness and speed of convergence for uncertain USV systems. Comparative simulations conducted with USVs demonstrate the superiority and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.