Distributed Bearing-only Formation Splitting and Merging Control of Underactuated Autonomous Surface Vessels

This paper develops a distributed bearing-only method for the splitting and merging control of multiple underactuated autonomous surface vessels (ASVs) under GPS-denied and obstacle-cluttered environment. Most of the distributed results are implementable based on the assumption that the position of each ASV is accessible. However, it is somewhat idealistic since the loss of the communication network and GPS signals possibly occurs due to various interferences, like the same-band signals and intentional cyber attacks. To this end, a bearing-only formation splitting and merging method is presented in this context. With bearing constraint only, the ASV formation is able to maneuver in GPS-denied environment, while the formation splitting and merging strategy renders it possible for multiple ASVs to automatically resize and splitting when facing signal-blocking obstacles. Simulation results have revealed that the formation keeping and obstacle avoidance can be achieved upon using the proposed method, even with partial losses of the visual connections among ASV members.