Distributed-observer-based adaptive fault tolerant formation maneuver for autonomous surface vehicles under stochastic cyber-attack

This paper investigates the distributed adaptive fault-tolerant formation maneuver control strategy for multiple autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) systems subject to stochastic cyber-attack and actuator failures. Existing works have provided solutions against continuous attacks on communication channels while ignoring the increasingly prevalent intermittent attacks. Compared to the former, the latter are more challenging to detect, having been insufficiently described and addressed. Motivated by this observation, this article is concerned with the stochastic intermittent injection attacks, which are modeled as stochastic impulsive sequences, characterized by stochastic injection instant and intensity, leading to unpredictable changes in the state information transmitted by the neighbors. Taking this dilemma into consideration, a novel distributed observer is proposed, capable of effectively observing the target formation even in the presence of stochastic intermittent injection attacks. Meanwhile, a large feedback gain is incorporated into the observer to reduce the impact of attacks on system stability. A linear sliding manifold, together with the adaptive algorithm, is utilized to construct a fault tolerant control architecture for each follower ASV without employing model parameters which can confront the embarrassing scenario of actuator failures. Eventually, theoretical deduction and numerical simulations are conducted to confirm the feasibility of the proposed collaborative control scheme. •The stochastic impulsive sequences are constructed as cyber-attack.•A novel distributed observer is developed to recover the target formation.•A model-free adaptive fault tolerant control scheme is proposed for actuator faults.