A leader-follower formation control strategy for AUVs based on line-of-sight guidance

In order to resolve the formation tracking problem of cooperative control of multiple Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), a variable structure control law was proposed to keep the AUVs track along the predefined trajectory by minimizing the cross track error, which is calculated from the line-of-sight angle. Furthermore, a mathematical model for the formation based on leader-follower was established and the relative formation control strategy based on feedback linearization was derived. Simulation results show that the proposed approach is feasible and the effect of formation tracking can be expressed visually.