The Path Planning Method for AUV Group Moving in Environment with Obstacles

Abstract

The new path planning method for AUV group moved in the " leader-followers" mode in a desired formation in an unknown environment with obstacles is proposed in paper. In this case one AUV plays role of AUV-leader, which has information about the mission and plans a safe trajectory of its movement, depending on its purpose and detected obstacles. AUV-followers must move behind the leader, in accordance with their assigned place in formation, using information about the current position of the leader, received via acoustic communication channels, and information about their distances to obstacles, detected by their onboard rangefinders. Due to the low bandwidth of acoustic communication channels, there is a problem of matching the position of the AUV-followers during obstacles avoidance. It is necessary to avoid collisions between AUV of group. This problem is solved by means of the preliminary forming for each follower of the only possible trajectory of movement inside formation which will provide it safe movement relatively other followers when this AUVfollower moves around detected obstacle. This approach allows do not coordinate the current position of the AUV-followers relative to other AUV of group if a high-precision control system is used, and as a result it does not require additional data exchange between the AUV group. In this paper, an approach to the forming of AUV-follower trajectories inside AUV formation and the method of forming the desired position of the AUV-followers on these trajectories are proposed. The effectiveness of the proposed method is confirmed by the results of mathematical modeling.