Path Planning for AUV Area Coverage Mission based on MOOS-IvP

摘要

As the use of Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) becomes more popular in seabed and underwater research, the improvement not only in mechanical and control engineering are severely important but also the autonomy algorithms and mission planning that makes the AUV autonomous and unique are vital. This paper will investigate the coverage planning strategies used by the existing AUV applications and identify their strength and weaknesses by MOOS-IvP as a simulation platform. Moreover, an improved area coverage path plan is proposed in conjunction with the results obtained to tackle some flaws encountered by traditional paths during sonar imaging missions. Lastly, due to the unstructured and dynamic nature of the underwater environment, the presence of current disturbance would affect the performance of the AUV. Thus, this paper will also discuss a path tracking algorithm with a heading current compensation to ensure the AUV does not deviate from its intended path set by the mission planner and ensure safe, effective and efficient area coverage performance.