Kinodynamic Motion Planning via Funnel Control for Underactuated Unmanned Surface Vehicles

We develop an algorithm to control an underactuated unmanned surface vehicle (USV) using kinodynamic motion planning with funnel control (KDF). KDF has two key components: motion planning used to generate trajectories with respect to kinodynamic constraints, and funnel control, also referred to as prescribed performance control, which enables trajectory tracking in the presence of uncertain dynamics and disturbances. We extend prescribed performance control to address the challenges posed by underactuation and control-input saturation present on the USV. The proposed scheme guarantees stability under user-defined prescribed performance functions where model parameters and exogenous disturbances are unknown. Furthermore, we present an optimization problem to obtain smooth, collision-free trajectories while respecting kinodynamic constraints. We deploy the algorithm on a USV and verify its efficiency in real-world open-water experiments.