Experimental study of group control laws for an autonomous unmanned underwater vehicle as a group agent

Abstract

Underwater works are effectively performed with the use of underwater vehicles. The use of groups of autonomous unmanned underwater vehicles for the monitoring of big volumes of underwater space is particularly effective. In this paper, modern approaches to group control of the motion of autonomous unmanned underwater vehicles are analyzed. The composition and configuration of the system of external environment sensors are proposed; the system allows an underwater vehicle to identify the presence of objects in close proximity and the direction of their motion. The structure of the automatic control system of a group of autonomous unmanned underwater vehicles in the mode of coordinated rectilinear motion is proposed. The system is based on the principle of subordinate control with the help of fuzzy logic controllers. The results of field trials of the system operation in the adhesion and cohesion modes of two underwater vehicles confirm the operability of the proposed approach.