Cooperative AUV Navigation using a Single Maneuvering Surface Craft

This paper describes the experimental implementation of an online algorithm for cooperative localization of submerged autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) supported by an autonomous surface craft. Maintaining accurate localization of an AUV is difficult because electronic signals, such as GPS, are highly attenuated by water. The usual solution to the problem is to utilize expensive navigation sensors to slow the rate of dead-reckoning divergence. We investigate an alternative approach that utilizes the position information of a surface vehicle to bound the error and uncertainty of the on-board position estimates of a low-cost AUV. This approach uses the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) acoustic modem to exchange vehicle location estimates while simultaneously estimating inter-vehicle range. A study of the system observability is presented so as to motivate both the choice of filtering approach and surface vehicle path planning. The first contribution of this paper is the p...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: IJRR
• Authors: Maurice F. Fallon, Georgios Papadopoulos, John J. Leonard, Nicholas M. Patrikalakis
• Keywords: Autonomous Surface, Autonomous Surface Craft, IJRR 2010, Vehicle