Robust Distributed Formation Controller Design for a Group of Unmanned Underwater Vehicles

The formation of unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) has wide potential for applications in various marine activities. This paper studies the robust formation protocol design problem for multiple UUVs, whose dynamics are subject to nonlinearity, parametric uncertainties, and external disturbances. A robust distributed formation control scheme is proposed, which yields a control structure involving a position loop and an attitude loop to govern the translational motion and rotational motion, respectively. Theoretical analysis is given to show the robustness properties of the global closed-loop control system. Simulation results are provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed formation control method.