Finite-time steering method for path following control of surface vehicles with input saturation

In this paper, we study the finite-time steering algorithms for path following control of surface vehicles. The steering method involves with maneuvers that should be taken to drive surface vehicles to move along the desired directions and is one of the fundamental parts for controlling surface vehicles. By leveraging the homogeneity properties and Lyapunov stability theory, a new steering controller with bounded input based on bi-limit homogeneous principle is developed to guarantee the finite-time closed-loop convergence regardless of initial deviations. The distinctive feature of the method is that the settling time can be guaranteed to satisfy the strict time constraints when dealing with complex tasks for surface vehicles in the unknown environment. The proposed controllers are implemented and validated in the numerical simulations while demonstrating robust finite-time convergence with high levels of efficiency.