Joint ASV/AUV range-based formation control: Theory and experimental results

Abstract

Abstract-The use of groups of autonomous marine vehicles has enormous potential in numerous marine applications, perhaps the most relevant of which is the surveying and exploration of the oceans, still widely unknown and misunderstood. In many mission scenarios requiring the concerted operation of multiple marine vehicles carrying distinct, yet complementary sensor suites, relative positioning and formation control becomes mandatory. However, the constraints placed by the medium make it hard to both communicate and localize vehicles, even in relation to each other. In this paper, we deal with the challenging problem of keeping an autonomous underwater vehicle in a moving triangular formation with respect to 2 leader vehicles. We build upon our previous theoretical work on range-only formation control, which presents simple feedback laws to drive the controlled vehicle to its intended position in the formation using only ranges obtained to the leading vehicles with no knowledge of the formation path. We then introduce the real-world constraints associated with the use of autonomous underwater vehicles, especially the low frequency characteristics of acoustic ranging and its unreliability. We discuss the required changes to implement the solution in our vehicles, and provide simulation results using a full dynamic and communication model. Finally, we present the results of real world trials using MEDUSA-class autonomous marine vehicles.

A Spatiotemporal Optimal Stopping Problem for Mission Monitoring with Stationary Viewpoints

“…Related problems include formation control and communication connectivity maintenance [31,20,35,2], and target following [8,11], and these problems are generally approached using closed-loop control with a sliding time horizon. We focus on longer-term path planning with an objective characterised as optimal stopping, and therefore formulate a combinatorial optimisation solution.…”

An algorithm for formation-based chemical plume tracing using robotic marine vehicles

“…The follower AUV runs a range-based formation controller [9], [10] that is able to maintain a robot in a triangular formation using acoustic ranges and piggybacked data. The underwater vehicle relays chemical concentration data, but is otherwise unaware of the plume tracing task.…”

Lidar-Based Relative Position Estimation and Tracking for Multi-robot Systems

“…The range was acquired using a laser, while the bearing was obtained by reading the tilting of a panning camera and keeping in its center the image of a color-coded marker attached to the other robot. In the work by Soares et al robots operated in an underwater medium, which makes it problematic to both communicate and localize, yet the local acoustic ranges provided enough information to serve as a basis to perform a formation maneuver [5]. Pugh et al presented an onboard relative positioning module for miniature robots, which operated using modulated infrared signals [6].…”