To improve the ability of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) formations to perform tasks in complex obstacle scenarios, a distributed three-dimensional affine formation shape maneuver control method is proposed for multi-AUV formations.

Based on the affine transformation theory and stress matrix, AUV formation shape can achieve rotation, scaling, shear, coplanarity, collineation, or their combination. Meanwhile, the yaw consistency of the multi-AUV formation is achieved based on the Laplacian matrix. Furthermore, a non-singular integral terminal sliding mode controller is employed to ensure that the multi-AUV formation can track the desired trajectory fast and with high accuracy.

Through high-fidelity simulation experiments, the proposed AUV formation maneuver control method can drive the multi-AUV formation to realize the high-precision maneuvering transformation of a three-dimensional formation with high maneuverability and strong robustness.

The proposed method enables the multi-AUV formation to avoid complex underwater obstacles by flexible maneuvering formation, which improves the safety of the AUV formation and its ability to perform tasks.