Abstract
Biomimetic Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (BAUVs) are Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) that employ similar propulsion and steering principles as real fish. While the real life applicability of these vehicles has yet to be fully investigated, laboratory investigations have demonstrated that at low speeds, the propulsive mechanism of these vehicles is more efficient when compared with propeller based AUVs. Furthermore, these vehicles have also demonstrated superior manoeuvrability characteristics when compared with conventional AUVs and Underwater Glider Systems (UGSs). Further performance benefits can be achieved through coordination of multiple BAUVs swimming in formation. In this study, the coordination strategy is based on the schooling behaviour of fish, which is a decentralized approach that allows multiple AUVs to be self-organizing. Such a strategy can be effectively utilized for large spatiotemporal data collection for oceanic monitoring and surveillance purposes. A validated mathematical model of the BAUV developed at the University of Glasgow, RoboSalmon, is used to represent the agents within a school formation. The performance of the coordination algorithm is assessed through simulation where system identification techniques are employed to improve simulation run time while ensuring accuracy is maintained. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of implementing coordination algorithms based on the behavioural mechanisms of fish to allow a group of BAUVs to be considered self-organizing.
Highlights
71% of the Earth’s surface is comprised of water [1], yet it is estimated that as much as 95% of this vast resource remains unexplored to a similar resolution that is available for the surface of the moon [2]
The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of implementing coordination algorithms based on the behavioural mechanisms of fish to allow a group of Biomimetic Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (BAUVs) to be considered self-organizing
The work presented in this paper has defined the operational benefits of being able to deploy self-coordinating group of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) for oceanic monitoring purposes, the challenges associated with a self-coordinating group of AUVs for oceanic monitoring purposes, the challenges associated with doing so as well as the current state of the art in the deployment of groups of AUVs
Summary
71% of the Earth’s surface is comprised of water [1], yet it is estimated that as much as 95% of this vast resource remains unexplored to a similar resolution that is available for the surface of the moon [2]. One particular coordination strategy that satisfies the above criteria is related to the behavioural mechanism utilized by fish within large school structures This mechanism enforces a number of behavioural zones around each fish, which, depending on the distance to its nearest neighbours, results in the fish manoeuvring in an attractive, orientating or repulsive manner [21,22,23]. It is the aim of this paper to demonstrate that coordination algorithms based on the behavioural mechanisms of fish provides a suitable and adaptive method to allow a group.
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