The Infona portal uses cookies, i.e. strings of text saved by a browser on the user's device. The portal can access those files and use them to remember the user's data, such as their chosen settings (screen view, interface language, etc.), or their login data. By using the Infona portal the user accepts automatic saving and using this information for portal operation purposes. More information on the subject can be found in the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. By closing this window the user confirms that they have read the information on cookie usage, and they accept the privacy policy and the way cookies are used by the portal. You can change the cookie settings in your browser.
Autonomous underwater vehicles have proven their roles as useful tools for scientific exploration and data gathering. The current state of the art in commercial vehicles involves a statical mission planning phase which does not take into account any energy or time limits. This work proposes the use of a mixed integer quadratic programming solution that maximises the utility of data gathering missions...
Most existing path planning algorithms focus on generating piecewise linear functions, while the smoothness of the path is usually ignored. Route stability and energy saving are key issues for an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) working in the underwater environment. To ensure that AUV can pass through the target area steadily and safely, a path smoother is required. This paper puts forward a novel...
Supervision and control of Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) has traditionally been focused on an operator determining a priori the sequence of waypoints of a single vehicle for a mission. As AUVs become more ubiquitous as a scientific tool, we envision the need for controlling multiple vehicles which would impose less cognitive burden on the operator with a more abstract form of human-in-the-loop...
The Marine Environmental Research Lab for Intelligent Vehicles (MERLIN) operates an Explorer Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) that serves as a potential platform for ocean surveys over a broad range of disciplines. MERLIN undertook a four year development program to improve both the capacity and autonomy of the vehicle by acquiring multibeam, side-scan and sub-bottom profiling sonars and developing...
One of essential factors in mission planning for an AUV group is mission running time. This paper addresses decentralized techniques, which can be used in order to minimize mission running time under uncertainty such as a change in the list of group members. The major contribution of this paper is decentralization of a previously developed mathematical model (a “version model”), intended for centralized...
In this paper, we present a navigation function based approach for docking onto a moving submarine. Docking of a AUV is a difficult problem due to currents and the presence of no fly zones around the submarine. The navigation function approach provides an integration of no-fly zones into the controller and determines the desired heading taking the kinematic constraints of the AUV into account. Simulations...
In March and April 2010, an ISE Explorer Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) was deployed to Canada's high Arctic. The under-ice bathymetric surveys conducted on this deployment support Canada's submission to establish the outer limits of its continental shelf under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
A constant challenge for naval platforms is to transit through an area that contains potential targets. We propose a methodology for planning the path of an autonomous underwater vehicle that performs a partial survey of an area, and we propose cost functions that can be used to minimize the cumulative risk for a follow-on naval asset that transits the survey area. Measures of performance used to...
Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are in high demand within the offshore industry and maritime research, mainly used for bathymetry and data acquisition. The control architectures of these AUVs mimic this primary function by focusing on strict mission plans as these kind of application require, thus reducing the need for direct sensor reaction to emergency situations. The emerging needs for more...
Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) can be utilized to perform difficult tasks in cluttered environments such as harbor and port protection. However, since UUVs have nonlinear and highly coupled dynamics, motion planning and control can be difficult when completing complex tasks. Introducing models into the motion planning process can produce paths the vehicle can feasibly traverse. As a result, Sampling-Based...
In March and April 2010, an ISE Explorer Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), built for Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), was deployed to Canada's high Arctic. Its mission was to undertake under-ice bathymetric surveys in support of Canada's submission to establish the outer limits of its continental shelf under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). During this deployment several...
We identify tacking as important ingredient to avoid bow-diving of Unmanned Sea Surface Vehicles. We first bootstrap control templates by an evolutionary algorithm. The evolved controller display a distinct tack behavior. We then implement tacking in a control architecture comprising a PID controller for target reaching combined with a high-level planner for tack generation that is based on the concept...
AUVs increasingly are being used to collect data in the benthic environment. Many of these data collection tasks require that the AUV is able to follow the terrain at standoff distances on the order of meters (e.g. benthic imaging). However, terrain following with an AUV is a challenging problem when the terrain is rough, and the task becomes even more difficult when using motion-constrained vehicles...
An abstract characterization of the networked vehicle systems under study is presented together with the corresponding modeling, coordination and control challenges. This is done with the help of an example of 24/7 persistent operations. The novel aspects of these systems are emphasized and the nature of the new challenges is discussed. This is done with reference to fundamental concepts in control...
Operation of networks of heterogeneous vehicles and sensors imposes many technical and operational challenges. Simultaneous control of multiple vehicle types requires abstraction any device-specific details and to keep human operators in the loop by providing them a good overall picture of the current system state. In this paper, we present the Neptus command and control infrastructure for such operations,...
Today a large number of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are evaluated or operated all over the world. Most of them use their own control systems created by the vehicle's manufacturer or scientists of different research areas. The Fraunhofer Application Center System Technology currently owns three underwater vehicles (both AUVs and remotely operated vehicles, ROVs), a forth is under development...
This paper discusses the autonomy framework proposed for the mobile instruments such as Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and gliders. Paper focuses on the challenges faced by these clusters of mobile platform in executive tasks such as adaptive sampling in the hostile underwater environment. Collaborations between these mobile instruments are essential to capture the environmental changes and...
Due to its significant potential applications, underwater chemical plume exploration and source localization via an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is currently a hot subject both in AUV and oceanic engineering research communities. Chemical plume including buoyant stem and non-buoyant part such as deep-sea hydrothermal plume is a typical dynamic 3D feature in the ocean environment; therefore,...
This paper presents an intelligent decision algorithm and an on-board architecture designed to enable an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) to carry out a survey mission autonomously. The connotation of global model in decision algorithm is analyzed, including environment information, mission information and Self-states of AUV. The survey mission of multi-objective operation areas in an unsafe zone...
This paper describes a general framework for the study of multiple vehicle, time-coordinated path following (TC-PF) control problems. An example is the situation where a group of vehicles is tasked to maneuver and arrive at pre-assigned final positions at the same time in a collision-free manner, while reducing some optimality criterion. The time of arrival is not fixed a priori, and the vehicles...
Set the date range to filter the displayed results. You can set a starting date, ending date or both. You can enter the dates manually or choose them from the calendar.