Abstract
<title>Abstract</title> <p>Autonomous sailboat navigation poses significant challenges due to its inherent nonlinear dynamics, underactuated characteristics, as well as its high sensitivity to unknown environmental disturbances. To address these issues, this paper proposes a novel finite-time barrier function (FTBF)-based sliding mode control (SMC) strategy tailored for simultaneous heading and speed control of a class of autonomous sailboat. Specifically, by integrating a novel fast-reaching law with finite-time terminal sliding mode control, the proposed method utilizes analytical proofs to guarantee accelerated system convergence to the sliding manifold. Furthermore, a barrier function is embedded within the SMC framework to explicitly constrain system states within predefined bounds, thereby ensuring operational safety during transient phases. Rigorous stability analysis, grounded in Lyapunov stability theory, establishes the finite-time convergence of the closed-loop errors to the equilibrium point. Comprehensive simulation results demonstrate that the proposed controller significantly outperforms conventional asymptotic methods in terms of convergence speed, disturbance rejection capabilities, and path-tracking accuracy.</p>