Low-cost high-performance seafloor surveying by multiple autonomous underwater vehicles

Abstract

This paper examines the performance of multiple autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) navigation using a static landmark AUV with respect to estimation accuracy, survey efficiency, and system cost. An alternating landmark navigation system has previously been developed in which moving AUVs estimate their states from a stationary AUV on the seafloor. Observational coverage can be expanded by alternating the landmark role among all AUVs. This paper focuses on how to extend the method in two or more AUV cases. In the extended method, two AUVs alternate between the moving and landmark roles, while other AUVs move and estimate their own states from the landmark AUV. It is expected that as the number of AUVs increased, survey efficiency would be improved because all AUVs except the landmark AUV can navigate simultaneously. All the AUVs can achieve accurate state estimation because of the landmark AUV. Through navigational simulation in cases of 3 to 30 AUVs, the performance was examined in terms of estimation accuracy, efficiency, and cost of the system. It was verified that the method can achieve low-cost high-performance seafloor surveying by selecting the most suitable navigation style for each mission.