This paper investigates a cooperative path-following control algorithm for an underactuated surface vehicle (USV) and an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) under external disturbances. For guidance design, a novel adaptive logic virtual ship (LVS) guidance principle is developed to generate real-time reference signals for both the USV and the UUV. It incorporates an adaptive drift angle compensation term to counteract external disturbances. This enhanced guidance law ensures smooth switching between path-following and cooperative modes, while accounting for the kinematic constraints of both vehicles. For control design, the robust bounded compensating technique is integrated with an integral dynamic event-triggered mechanism (IDTM) to approximate the uncertain nonlinear terms and reduce the communication burden between the controller and actuators. Furthermore, the servo system dynamics are explicitly incorporated into the controller design to enhance tracking performance and system robustness. Based on the Lyapunov theory, it is proved that all signals in the closed-loop system are semi-globally uniformly ultimately bounded (SGUUB). Numerical simulations are conducted to validate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed cooperative control strategy under time-varying external disturbances. • An adaptive LVS guidance law is developed for cooperative path following, incorporating real-time drift angle compensation to enhance robustness. • An integral dynamic event-triggered mechanism (IDTM) is designed for reducing communication burden. • All signals in the closed-loop cooperative system are proven to be SGUUB stable via Lyapunov analysis.
Li et al. (2026) studied this question.