Implementation of a Control Architecture for Networked Vehicle Systems

Abstract

This paper describes the layered control architecture and its software implementation developed and used at the Underwater Systems and Technology Laboratory. The architecture is implemented as a toolchain which consists on three main entities: DUNE onboard software, Neptus command and control software and a common IMC message-based communication protocol. The LSTS software toolchain has been tested throughout various field deployments where it was used to control heterogeneous autonomous vehicles like AUVs, ASVs, UAVs and ROVs in both single and multi-vehicle operations.