Overview of Recent Advances in Cooperative Optimized Navigation of Multiple Unmanned Surface Vehicles

Abstract

With the leapfrog development of marine unmanned system technology, autonomous collaborative operations of multiple Unmanned Surface Vehicles (multi-USVs) have become a key approach to solving complex sea area tasks and improving operational efficiency. Despite extensive application potentials, the cooperative optimized navigation of multiple USVs faces severe challenges. These challenges primarily originate from strong dynamic disturbances and shallow-water effects in complex aquatic environments, as well as nonlinearity and model uncertainty in USV dynamics. Furthermore, multi-objective conflicts in cooperative decision-making, network communication constraints, and security threats from physical failures and malicious cyberattacks further complicate the navigation tasks. Cooperative optimized navigation of multiple USVs has received considerable attention in recent years. This article provides a systematic review of the latest research progress in autonomous cooperative optimization navigation strategies for multiple USVs. First, the three-degree-of-freedom nonlinear dynamic model of USVs and the characterization of environmental disturbances are presented. Next, core distributed optimization techniques, including multi-objective game-theoretic path planning, distributed model predictive control, and reinforcement learning in collaborative decision-making, are briefly discussed. Then, recent results on networked coordination under resource constraints and system security control, such as event-triggered mechanisms, quantization control strategies, robust anti-disturbance control, fault-tolerant control, and active defense strategies against malicious cyberattacks, are reviewed in detail. Finally, several technical bottlenecks are summarized and future trends are suggested to direct future investigations, including multi-degree-of-freedom heterogeneity, all-weather adaptability, and human-machine integration.