Active Disturbance Rejection Control for Trajectory Tracking of a Seagoing USV: Design, Simulation, and Field Experiments

2025-06-26

AI Summary

To address insufficient trajectory tracking robustness of unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) under unknown environmental disturbances—such as waves and ocean currents—this paper proposes a marine-environment-customized active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) method. We innovatively formulate an ADRC model tailored to USV hydrodynamic characteristics, develop a practical, shipboard-applicable parameter tuning strategy, and conduct the first systematic sea-trial validation under realistic maritime conditions. The controller is implemented on the DUS V2500 platform and evaluated in two operational scenarios near Scheveningen Port and its adjacent offshore waters in the Netherlands. Results demonstrate significant reduction in cross-track error and markedly improved robustness compared to a PID baseline. Furthermore, we quantitatively characterize the trade-off between enhanced performance and increased energy consumption. This work establishes a reusable paradigm—including modeling, implementation, and experimental validation—for engineering ADRC deployment in marine autonomous systems.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: State Estimation
• Multiagent Systems: Adversarial Agents
• Search and Optimization: Mixed Discrete/Continuous Search

Application Category

• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: On-Device user modeling, personalization, and recommendation
• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Energy management for devices in mobile Web and WoT environments
• Graph Algorithms and Modeling for the Web: Efficient manipulation of static and dynamic Web-related graphs

Abstract

Unmanned Surface Vessels (USVs) face significant control challenges due to uncertain environmental disturbances like waves and currents. This paper proposes a trajectory tracking controller based on Active Disturbance Rejection Control (ADRC) implemented on the DUS V2500. A custom simulation incorporating realistic waves and current disturbances is developed to validate the controller's performance, supported by further validation through field tests in the harbour of Scheveningen, the Netherlands, and at sea. Simulation results demonstrate that ADRC significantly reduces cross-track error across all tested conditions compared to a baseline PID controller but increases control effort and energy consumption. Field trials confirm these findings while revealing a further increase in energy consumption during sea trials compared to the baseline.

Problem

• Control USV trajectory under environmental disturbances
• Validate ADRC performance via simulation and field tests
• Compare ADRC and PID in error and energy use

Innovation

• Active Disturbance Rejection Control for USV
• Simulation with realistic wave disturbances
• Field validation in harbor and sea