Intermittent Predefined-Time Control of Unmanned Vehicles

The challenges of communication interruptions have caused unmanned vehicles to lose the real-time transmission of essential data. The traditional control architecture, designed for continuous measurement, is inadequate to address the constraints posed by the fragility of facilities in harsh maritime conditions. Therefore, it is necessary to enhance the transient stability performance in non-ideal conditions and environments. This work proposes a novel intermittent predefined-time control algorithm. This approach eliminates the need for frequent measurement and recalculation of control laws at every moment, and extends the usage scenarios of intermittent control from first-order systems to second-order systems. During the holding interval, the control input remains as the last control signal in the driving interval, provided that the validated stability conditions are satisfied. The designed controller also ensures stability with zero control inputs during the holding interval. Furthermore, the proposed method aims to optimise energy consumption in control and measurement. Using the Lyapunov theorem and mathematical induction, sufficient conditions for achieving predefined-time convergence in intermittent control are derived and verified with unmanned vehicles. The proposed method demonstrates a 5.4% reduction in tracking error compared to the fixed-time control method, and a 7.9% reduction in tracking error compared to the event-triggered predefined-time control method. This approach reduces the frequency of control law recalculations, measurements and energy consumption.