Planning-Control Integration Based Waypoints Precise Tracking for An Underactuated Unmanned Surface Vehicle

This paper addresses the challenge of accurate waypoints tracking for an underactuated unmanned surface vehicle (USV) in complex marine environments by proposing an NRRT-FTC control framework that integrates path planning and guidance control. The improved Rapidly-Exploring Random Tree (RRT) algorithm eliminates redundant waypoints and incorporates Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline (NURBS) reverse fitting to generate smooth paths with reduced control order, ensuring precise waypoints passage. A fault-tolerant control strategy is also designed to handle environmental disturbances, system uncertainties, and actuator faults, significantly enhancing the system's robustness and reliability. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method effectively improves path smoothness and guidance control performance while validating the effectiveness of the fault-tolerant control approach.