Alternating landmark navigation of multiple AUVs for wide seafloor survey: Field experiment and performance verification

Abstract

AbstractThis paper reports the results of the sea experiments and the performance verification of a navigation method for wide area surveys of the seafloor using multiple autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). In the method, AUVs alternately land on the seafloor to act as landmarks for each other, and all AUVs can observe a wide area with accurate positioning relative to the landmark AUV. For self‐localization, AUVs are typically supported by long base line (LBL) or super short base line (SSBL) of the support system. Thanks to the proposed method, AUVs can perform near‐seafloor surveys requiring real‐time and accurate positioning, such as seafloor imaging and sampling, without these support systems. The method was implemented on two AUVs: “Tri‐Dog 1” and “Tri‐TON.” The performance of the method was verified using these AUVs through sea experiments and postprocessing simulation using experimental data. In addition, it was also verified that the performance of the method is comparable to high‐grade conventional navigation methods, such as LBL or SSBL, through simulations of long distance navigation.