Hierarchical control of multiple tugboats with constraint-driven model-following control
This paper presents a novel hierarchical control architecture designed for navigating multiple tugboats to perform complex maneuvers, including approaching, enclosing, and capturing a large target vessel, while taking into account external disturbances and operational constraints. The proposed hiera...
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis Group
2025-12-01
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| Series: | SICE Journal of Control, Measurement, and System Integration |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/18824889.2025.2521907 |
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| Summary: | This paper presents a novel hierarchical control architecture designed for navigating multiple tugboats to perform complex maneuvers, including approaching, enclosing, and capturing a large target vessel, while taking into account external disturbances and operational constraints. The proposed hierarchical control architecture includes a high-level nominal controller for trajectory generation, tracking, and coordination, and a low-level model-following controller for multitask execution. The low-level controller integrates constraint-driven control to refine nominal control inputs generated by the high-level controller, and local control to mitigate disturbances. To achieve multitask execution across all phases, the constraint-driven controller activates only essential constraints, enforcing seamless maneuver transitions without relying on ad-hoc controller switching. Specifically, we design constraints to facilitate effective enclosing behaviour while guiding the tugboat fleet toward the target in formation. We also adopt a so-called Prescribed-Time Safety Filter to enforce mild contact with the surface of the target vessel within a specified finite-time interval. Simulation studies validate the proposed control architecture across all maneuvers throughout the operation and demonstrate its capability to achieve complex multi-tugboat coordination. |
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| ISSN: | 1884-9970 |