Cooperative distributed behaviours of an AUV network for asset protection with communication constraints

Abstract

Within this paper we present a cooperative adaptive algorithm for the management of a team of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) that are the mobile nodes of an adhoc underwater network and share the mission objective of protecting an asset while maintaining reliable acoustic communication links among themselves. Each vehicle is considered to be equipped with a detection sonar for asset protection and with an acoustic modem for communication purposes. The performance of the algorithm is shown with respect to optimal geometric solutions, and through the simulation of the underneath acoustic network to verify the performance in scenarios characterized by long propagation delays, high packet losses and unreliable communication links.

Single and Multi-metric Trust Management Frameworks for Use in Underwater Autonomous Networks

“…The Hermes trust establishment framework [7] uses Bayesian reasoning to generate a posterior distribution function of "belief", or trust, given a sequence of observations of that behaviour, p(B|O) (1).…”

“…In addition to the communications challenges, other considerations such as command and control isolation, as well as power and locomotive limitations, drive towards the use of teams of smaller and cheaper autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). These increasingly decentralised applications present unique threats against trust management [1]. In underwater environments, communications is both sparse and noisy.…”