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Vector field path following control for unmanned surface vehicles

Many ocean survey missions require an Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) to accurately follow predefined paths, and thus, an efficient and robust path following control algorithm is essential for many applications. The Vector Field Method (VF) has been widely employed in the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) community, and evaluating this well-accepted method for USVs will be of great interest for USV practitioners. In this paper, we will adapt and apply this algorithm on the USV path following problem. We provide a comprehensive study of the VF algorithm for tracking straight and circular paths, which includes searching the parameter space, doing simulation tests and carrying out field trials. Finally, a mock ocean survey task has been planned and the successful results prove the robustness and accuracy of the introduced VF algorithm.