A Novel Framework to Design Tactical Level Controllers for Surface Vehicles Performing Trajectory Tracking Missions
IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Basım Tarihi: 2026
- Doi Numarası: 10.1109/joe.2026.3695321
- Dergi Adı: IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Aerospace Database, Compendex, INSPEC, Natural Science Collection (ProQuest), Earth, Atmospheric, & Aquatic Science Collection (ProQuest), Materials Science & Engineering Collection (ProQuest), Technology Collection (ProQuest)
- Anahtar Kelimeler: Autopilot design for autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs), evolutionary optimization, pythagorean hodographs (PH), surface vehicles, trajectory tracking
- Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
In this article, a general optimization framework is introduced to design and test tactical-level controllers for autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) performing trajectory-tracking missions with a selected guidance law. This framework proposes a resolution to the vagueness in the selection of the cost function definition and the test path during the parameter optimization procedures. Two different strategic-level cost functions are selected for the optimization of the tactical-level controllers, and the selection criteria for the cost function definitions are related to the curvature of the test path. The parameters in tactical-level controllers of different types are optimized using an evolutionary algorithm: JADE with an archive. The performance of the cost-function and test-path association is evaluated in terms of the convergence rate of the optimization routine and sampling diversity throughout the optimization iterations. Using constant-bearing guidance as the guidance law, the approach is tested on four different controllers: proportional–integral–derivative, pole placement, sliding mode, and feedback linearization. It is observed that tactical-level controllers can be designed only by evaluating the strategic-level observations such as position and velocity deviations from the desired values, where these measurements necessitate lower-cost sensors compared to conventional control-input/effort measurements, and the cost computations in the optimization routine can be directly linked to the mission objectives of the trajectory-tracking ASV. Furthermore, along roads with smaller curvatures, the convergence of the optimization routines using a cost definition including the velocity tracking errors is observed to have better convergence and sampling-diversity performance compared to those attained with cost definitions including only the position tracking errors, and the opposite is found to be true along the test tracks with larger curvatures. The results show that it is possible to find an association rule between the cost function definition and the path to be followed in the design of tactical-level controllers for trajectory-tracking ASVs.