Intelligent multi-task allocation and planning for multiple unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) using self-organising maps and fast marching method

Abstract

As a result of the advances in autonomous navigation technology, ocean based operations with increasing levels of complexity can be undertaken using unmanned surface vehicles (USVs). Presently, the trend of developing USVs is to use multiple USVs as a fleet to carry out single or multiple tasks in a cooperative and coordinated manner. To further support such a deployment, a new intelligent multi-task allocation and path planning algorithm has been proposed in this paper based upon the self-organising map (SOM) and the fast marching method (FMM). To specifically address the two critical issues of energy consumption and communication range, a novel energy coordination scheme as well as a task prioritising method have been proposed to efficiently assign tasks to a multi-USV system. The algorithm has been verified and validated through a number of computer-based simulations and has been proven to work effectively in both simulated and practical maritime environments.