This paper proposes a distributed guiding-vector-field (DGVF) controller for cross-domain unmanned systems (CDUSs) consisting of heterogeneous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned surface vehicles (USVs), to achieve coordinated navigation whereas maneuvering along their prescribed paths. In particular, the DGVF controller provides a hierarchical architecture of an upper-level heterogeneous guidance velocity controller and a lower-level signal tracking regulator. Therein, the upper-level controller is to govern multiple heterogeneous USVs and UAVs to approach and maneuver along the prescribed paths and coordinate the formation simultaneously, whereas the low-level regulator is to track the corresponding desired guidance signals provided by the upper-level module. Significantly, the heterogeneous coordination among neighboring UAVs and USVs is achieved merely by the lightweight communication of a scalar (i.e., the additional virtual coordinate), which substantially decreases the communication and computational costs. Sufficient conditions assuring asymptotical convergence of the closed-loop system are derived in presence of the exponentially vanishing tracking errors. Finally, real-lake experiments are conducted on a self-established cross-domain heterogeneous platform consisting of three M-100 UAVs, two HUSTER-16 USVs, a HUSTER-12C USV, and a WiFi 5G wireless communication station to verify the effectiveness of the present DGVF controller.

翻译：本文提出了一种面向跨域无人系统（CDUS）的分布式引导向量场（DGVF）控制器，该系统由异构无人机（UAV）与无人水面艇（USV）组成，旨在实现沿预设路径机动过程中的协同导航。具体而言，所提出的DGVF控制器采用分层架构：上层为异构制导速度控制器，下层为信号跟踪调节器。其中，上层控制器用于控制多个异构USV与UAV沿预设路径趋近并机动航行，同时实现编队协同；下层调节器则用于跟踪上层模块提供的期望制导信号。值得注意的是，相邻UAV与USV之间的异构协同仅通过标量（即附加虚拟坐标）的轻量化通信即可实现，这极大降低了通信与计算开销。在指数衰减跟踪误差存在的情况下，本文推导了确保闭环系统渐近收敛的充分条件。最终，在包含三架M-100 UAV、两艘HUSTER-16 USV、一艘HUSTER-12C USV及WiFi 5G无线通信基站的自建跨域异构平台上开展了实湖实验，验证了所提DGVF控制器的有效性。