Abstract
Because of their wide detection range and rich functions, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are widely used for observing the marine environment, for exploring natural resources, for security and defense purposes, and in many other fields of interest. Compared with a single AUV, a multi-AUV formation can better perform various tasks and adapt to complex underwater environments. With changes in the mission or environment, a change in the UAV formation may also be required. In the last decade, much progress has been made in the transformation of multi-AUV formations. In this paper, we aim to analyze the core concepts of multi-AUV formation transformation; summarize the effects of the AUV model, underwater environment, and communication between AUVs within formations on formation transformation; and elaborate on basic theories and implementation approaches for multi-AUV formation transformation. Moreover, this overview includes a bibliometric analysis of the related literature from multiple perspectives. Finally, some challenging issues and future research directions for multi-AUV formation transformation are highlighted.
Highlights
An autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is a complex system that integrates sensor detection, information fusion, vehicle control, and other technologies and is widely used in marine exploration, underwater pipeline detection, hunting, and other scientific and military tasks
In this paper, we present an overview of works related to the main influencing factors and basic theories of multi-AUV formation transformation
Given the characteristics of the AUV dynamics and working environment, in this subsection, we summarize the main constraints on multi-AUV formation transformation, including the AUV autocorrelation, environmental, and AUV cooperation constraints
Summary
We present some key problems associated with multi-AUV formation transformation and describe related research with respect to these problems. We introduce the main factors influencing multiAUV formation transformation, including the AUV model, formation structure, underwater environment, Bin Xin et al.: Overview of Research on Transformation of Multi-AUV Formations and some constraints. These factors provide a foundation for understanding the difficulties associated with multi-AUV formation transformation, classifying transformation methods, and future research directions
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