Marine Surface Vehicle Formations in Confined Environments

The paper reports on coordinating in field conditions a group of autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) into environmentally‐aware desired formations. In the application case that motivates this work, these formations are dictated by an overarching water quality data collection and fusion task. The formations achieved here are not tied to fixed spatial coordinates but rather can flow with the ambient current, allowing the deployment of these robots into a variety of aquatic environments, including rivers and estuaries. In addition to collision avoidance between robotic vehicles, the reported free‐floating formation controller also takes into account workspace boundaries and obstacles, which can come in the form of river banks, floating piers, and boats. The methodology introduces key modifications on a potential field‐based formation control strategy and is validated extensively in simulation and experimental tests.