Autonomous Underwater Robotic Electric Vehicles for Inter-Robot Line-of-Sight Tracking and Range Communication

Abstract

The use of underwater robotic vehicles (URVs) for scientific inspection of the deep sea, oceanographic mapping, littoral survey, exploitation of underwater resources, protection of the marine environment, and so on, has grown dramatically in recent years. An underwater robot is more difficult to design than a vehicle for use on land or in space. In order to circumvent this issue, we offer a hybrid optimization approach for AUV path planning in an obstacle-filled environment subject to communication limitations. To coordinate several AUVs in a fixed topology environment, a PD controller is employed. A remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) is a type of submersible underwater vehicle that can operate without human intervention. It is controlled by an on board computer to perform assigned tasks. Due to the intricacy of the AUV motion control problem, a simulation environment was built in MATLAB/SIMULINK utilising the specifications of the widely used INFANTE AUV. The simulation studies have analysed the control performances under a variety of motion control scenarios, including coordination control, path tracking, and obstacle avoidance.