Validation of Acoustic and Geophysics based Underwater Localization with an Autonomous Surface Vehicle

Abstract

This paper presents development of an autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) and validation of its performance. The ASV was developed on a catamaran by integrating various sensors and systems, including power and electrical propulsion, navigation and control, and communication devices. The vehicle has two main purposes; 1) Development of autonomous navigation technology for surface vehicle, and 2) Validation of underwater navigation technology before applying to autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). The vehicle is used as testbed to evaluate the navigation technologies for both surface and underwater environment. So, it is developed to be equipped with various kinds of navigation sensors. For surface navigation, basic performance of the vehicle, way point tracking and obstacle avoidance are evaluated. For underwater navigation, acoustic based SLAM and terrain based localization are developed and demonstrated using the developed vehicle. Several times of field test conducted in inland water environment demonstrate the performance of the developed vehicle and navigation algorithms.