In the context of motion planning in robotics, the problem of path planning based on artificial potential fields has been examined using different algorithms to avoid trapping in local minima. With this objective, this paper proposes a novel method based on a deterministic annealing strategy to improve the potential field function by introducing a temperature parameter to increase the robot's obstacle avoidance efficiency. The annealing and tempering strategies prevent the robot from being trapped at the local minima and allow it to continue towards its destination. The initial path is optimised using an annealing algorithm to enhance the overall performance. The time, length and success rate of the planned path measures the quality of the solution. Simulation results and comparative experiments demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can solve path planning in different environments. The proposed algorithm is suitable for complex environments with convex or non-convex polygon obstacles.

This study is concerned with the problem of finite‐time filter design for a class of Itô stochastic systems with Markovian switching and distributed time‐varying delays. Firstly, a partially mode‐dependent filter is designed to accommodate to unreliable network transmission. The attention is focused on deriving sufficient conditions for the filtering error system to ensure the finite‐time boundedness and to satisfy a prescribed disturbance attenuation. Then based on stochastic functional theory, the existence of filter is presented by solving existing linear matrix inequalities optimisation problems. Furthermore, the result is extended to the case where the mode information is completely transmitted. Finally, a numerical example is provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed results.

In this paper, we investigate a neural adaptive formation control problem for underactuated unmanned surface vehicles (USVs). Considering the limitation of communication distance and the security of formation systems, collision-free and connectivity maintenance are guaranteed by defining a prescribed-time tuning function and proper error transformation. Furthermore, a new nonlinear first-order filter, solving the complexity problem, is designed to promote the system performance. Subsequently, neural networks (NNs) are used to approximate USVs’ dynamics and their transient performance is improved by prediction error. By blending prediction errors and neural approximation, it is guaranteed the general external disturbances and approximation errors are compensated via constructed disturbance observers (DOs), simultaneously. Meanwhile, utilizing the minimal number of learning parameters (MNLPs) methodology, the number of NNs’ learning parameters can be significantly reduced. It is rigorously proved that all signals in the closed-loop system are bounded via Lyapunov stability theorem. Finally, simulation and experimental studies are presented to verify the effectiveness and advantages of theoretical results.