A Stream Function Approach to Design Obstacle Avoidance Path Planning Algorithm for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

摘要

Efficient and practical path-planning methods are a key issue forrnmodern autonomous underwater vehicles. This paper describes a streamrnfunction based obstacle avoidance path planning method forrnautonomous underwater vehicle. The specific requirement of thernunderwater world, its manoeuvrability, and constrained view of sonarrnwere considered by the modification of stream function and numericalrntechniques. This method is less affected by local minima than classicalrnmethods using potential fields. The methods for single and multiplernobstacles in two dimensions were discussed with constrained searchingrnspace and the detailed parameters conditions. The simulation resultsrnindicated that the method is feasible and suitable for autonomousrnunderwater vehicles.