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Main Authors: Battocletti, Gianpietro, Boskos, Dimitris, De Schutter, Bart
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.07316
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author Battocletti, Gianpietro
Boskos, Dimitris
De Schutter, Bart
author_facet Battocletti, Gianpietro
Boskos, Dimitris
De Schutter, Bart
contents Uncrewed Surface Vehicles (USVs) are a popular and efficient type of marine craft that find application in a large number of water-based tasks. When multiple USVs operate in the same area, they may be required to dock to each other to perform a shared task. Existing approaches for the docking between autonomous USVs generally consider one USV as a stationary target, while the second one is tasked to reach the required docking pose. In this work, we propose a cooperative approach for USV-USV docking, where two USVs work together to dock at an agreed location. We use a centralized Model Predictive Control (MPC) approach to solve the control problem, obtaining feasible trajectories that also guarantee constraint satisfaction. Owing to its model-based nature, this approach allows the rejection of disturbances, inclusive of exogenous inputs, by anticipating their effect on the USVs through the MPC prediction model. This is particularly effective in case of almost-stationary disturbances such as water currents. In simulations, we demonstrate how the proposed approach allows for a faster and more efficient docking with respect to existing approaches.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_07316
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Model Predictive Control for Cooperative Docking Between Autonomous Surface Vehicles with Disturbance Rejection
Battocletti, Gianpietro
Boskos, Dimitris
De Schutter, Bart
Robotics
Systems and Control
Uncrewed Surface Vehicles (USVs) are a popular and efficient type of marine craft that find application in a large number of water-based tasks. When multiple USVs operate in the same area, they may be required to dock to each other to perform a shared task. Existing approaches for the docking between autonomous USVs generally consider one USV as a stationary target, while the second one is tasked to reach the required docking pose. In this work, we propose a cooperative approach for USV-USV docking, where two USVs work together to dock at an agreed location. We use a centralized Model Predictive Control (MPC) approach to solve the control problem, obtaining feasible trajectories that also guarantee constraint satisfaction. Owing to its model-based nature, this approach allows the rejection of disturbances, inclusive of exogenous inputs, by anticipating their effect on the USVs through the MPC prediction model. This is particularly effective in case of almost-stationary disturbances such as water currents. In simulations, we demonstrate how the proposed approach allows for a faster and more efficient docking with respect to existing approaches.
title Model Predictive Control for Cooperative Docking Between Autonomous Surface Vehicles with Disturbance Rejection
topic Robotics
Systems and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.07316