Safe Sliding Mode Control for Marine Vessels Using High-Order Control Barrier Functions and Fast Projection

TL;DR

This paper introduces a robust, real-time control framework combining Sliding Mode Control and High-Order Control Barrier Functions with a fast projection method to ensure safe, obstacle-avoiding navigation of marine vessels under environmental disturbances.

Contribution

It develops a novel integrated control approach that enhances robustness and safety for marine vessels using HOCBFs and a lightweight projection, suitable for real-time embedded systems.

Findings

Successful simulation of obstacle avoidance in complex marine environments.

Demonstrated computational efficiency suitable for real-time applications.

Guaranteed safety and robustness under environmental disturbances.

Abstract

This paper presents a novel safe control framework that integrates Sliding Mode Control (SMC), High-Order Control Barrier Functions (HOCBFs) with state-dependent adaptiveness and a lightweight projection for collision-free navigation of an over-actuated 3-DOF marine surface vessel subjected to strong environmental disturbances (wind, waves, and current). SMC provides robustness to matched disturbances common in marine operations, while HOCBFs enforce forward invariance of obstacle-avoidance constraints. A fast half-space projection method adjusts the SMC control only when needed, preserving robustness and minimizing chattering. The approach is evaluated on a nonlinear marine platform model that includes added mass, hydrodynamic damping, and full thruster allocation. Simulation results show robust navigation, guaranteed obstacle avoidance, and computational efficiency suitable for real-time embedded use. For small marine robots and surface vessels with limited onboard computational resources-where execution speed and computational efficiency are critical-the SMC-HOCBF framework constitutes a strong candidate for safety-critical control.