Adaptive nonlinear information fusion preview control for autonomous surface vessels subject to measurement noises and unknown input saturations

This study presents an adaptive nonlinear information fusion preview control (NIFPC) method for trajectory tracking of autonomous surface vessels (ASVs) subject to system uncertainty, measurement noise, and unknown input saturations. The NIFPC is developed based on the nonlinear information fusion estimation methodology, in which the system's future reference trajectory information, noise information, performance index requirements, and system dynamic model are all transformed into information equations related to control input, and then the current control action is obtained by fusing these previewed future information via the nonlinear information fusion optimal estimation. In order to avoid the unknown input saturation constraints, a fuzzy asymmetric saturated approximator (FASA) is designed and integrated into the controller, where the fuzzy logic system (FLS) is used to adaptively adjust the key boundary parameters of the approximator. As a result, the negative effects caused by system uncertainty and measurement noise can be effectively suppressed, while the completely unknown input saturation constraints in the system actuator are guaranteed not to be violated. The convergence of the tracking errors of the closed-loop system is guaranteed via Lyapunov stability theory. Numerical simulation results have been provided to demonstrate the satisfactory performance of the proposed control scheme.