Event-Triggered Zero-Sum Game for Safety Control of Autonomous Surface Vehicles

This article investigates the problem of disturbance attenuation for autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) subject to asymmetric time-varying saturation. To address this challenge, we propose a novel event-triggered (ET) zero-sum (ZS) differential game framework that integrates a barrier function and a nonquadratic value function, enabling simultaneous achievement of safety control and disturbance attenuation. Initially, by designing a barrier function, the control problem of the asymmetric time-varying saturated ASV system is transformed into an unsaturated form. Afterward, a nonquadratic value function is designed, and ZS games are employed to obtain the saturated-optimal control policy and the worst-case disturbance policy. Then, the ET method is introduced into policy execution and critic neural network learning. The scheme in this article ensures the safety and stability of the ASV while reducing computational burden and meeting the needs of disturbance attenuation. Finally, theoretical analysis and simulation experiments verify the feasibility of the ET ZS differential game approach.