Abstract
This paper addresses the distance-based formation control problem for multiple Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) in a leader-follower architecture. The leading AUV is assigned a task to track a desired trajectory and the following AUVs try to set up a predefined formation structure by attaining specific distances among their neighboring AUVs, while avoiding collisions and enabling at the same time relative localization. More specifically, a decentralized control protocol of minimal complexity is proposed that achieves prescribed, arbitrarily fast and accurate formation establishment. The control signal of each vehicle is calculated based on the relative position of its neighbors and its own velocity only, which can be easily acquired by the onboard sensors without necessitating for explicit network communication. Finally, a realistic simulation study with five AUVs performing seabed scanning was conducted to clarify the approach and verify the theoretical findings of this work.
Highlights
The use of autonomous underwater vehicles has steadily grown during the last 20 years
We consider a leader-follower scheme composed of five identical underwater robotic vehicles
The task of scanning the sea-bed was assigned to the multi-agent system
Summary
The use of autonomous underwater vehicles has steadily grown during the last 20 years. Most of the aforementioned applications are complex, time critical and may impose high level requirements in terms of accuracy, dexterity as well as time of completion Such strict specifications are almost impossible to be satisfied using a stand-alone vehicle. The deployment of multiple underwater vehicles in various formation schemes has emerged (see Figure 1) In this way, significant mission characteristics, such as completion time, fault tolerance, cognition and perception of the augmented system are positively affected. Significantly better results can be accomplished in area patrolling for security or search and rescue purposes, where a usually large area should be thoroughly examined with increased confidence level (Kemp et al, 2004) Another key feature of multi-agent systems is the upgrade of persistent autonomy via fault tolerance (Longhi et al, 2008). In a surveillance and map building application, an agent with a faulty Multi-Beam Imaging Sonar (MBIS) can be excluded from the perception process, but still can act as a communication relay among the rest of the agents and the support vessel, by exploiting its acoustic communication equipment
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