Improved basic planar algorithm of vehicle guidance through waypoints by the line of sight

Abstract

Guidance through waypoints is common for small autonomous marine vehicles. Guidance by the line of sight, the basic waypoint guidance algorithm, is very simple, computationally inexpensive, and flexible to sudden changes in the desired path specification. On the other side, the basic algorithm achieves unoptimal vehicle trajectory, ignores possible side disturbances as sea currents, and can even lead to deadlock situations. Therefore it should be improved to use in the real world applications. This paper introduces several such improvements: missed waypoint detection to prevent deadlocks, novel reference heading correction method to give smoother vehicle path in turns at waypoints, and sea current compensation method to cancel its influence. This improvements address the mentioned flaws of the basic algorithm, as is demonstrated by the simulations, and yet keep it simpler than is the case for the most used waypoint-derived guidance methods.