Abstract: Abstract：[Objectives] Target tracking is an important application of unmanned surface vehicle (USV), and for the problem that the reference trajectory obtained by relative fixed tracking position (RFTP) strategy contains inflection points and leads to tracking instability, relative time-varying tracking position (RTTP) strategy is proposed to improve the tracking stability. [Methods] Firstly, the first-order hysteresis filter is used to process the target USV’s heading variation; then the time-varying tracking position is designed according to the filtered data, and the target tracking problem is transformed into a trajectory tracking problem and the reference trajectory is obtained; finally, the model predictive control (MPC) is used to achieve the tracking of the target USV. [Results] The simulation experimental results show that the tracking effect of USV under RTTP strategy is more stable, the root mean square error of tracking distance decreases by 28.056%, the energy consumption decreases by 5.929%, and it also has advantages in the smoothness of the control volume. [Conclusions] Compared with the traditional RFTP strategy, the RTTP strategy proposed can effectively improve the stability of target tracking of USV, which provide a new strategy for USV to achieve target tracking.