The problem of high-precision bottom-following in the proximity of the seabed for open-frame UUVs (Unmanned Underwater Vehicles) is addressed. The suggested approach consists of the integration of a guidance and control system with an active multi-hypothesis extended Kalman filter, able to estimate the motion of the vehicle with respect to the bottom profile. The guidance module is based on the definition of a suitable Lyapunov function associated with the bottom-following task, while the motion controller is a conventional auto-pilot, performing auto-heading, auto-depth, and auto-speed. The motion of the vehicle is estimated from range and bearing measurements supplied by a high-frequency pencil-beam profiling sonar. Moreover, a general-purpose sensor-based guidance and control system for advanced UUVs, able to manage active sensing-based guidance and motion estimation modules, is presented. An application of the proposed architecture to execute high-precision bottom-following using Romeo, a prototype UUV, developed by the Robotics Department of the Instituto Automazione Navale, is described. Experimental results of tests, conducted in a high-diving pool with the vehicle equipped with a sonar profiler, are presented.
Active sonar-based bottom-following for unmanned underwater vehicles
Navigation eines automatischen Unterwasserfahrzeuges in konstanter Entfernung zum Seeboden mittels einer Ultraschall-Entfernungsmessung
Control Engineering Practice ; 7 , 4 ; 459-468
1999
10 Seiten, 12 Bilder, 18 Quellen
Article (Journal)
English
UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE WITH UNDERWATER SONAR SCANNING CAPABILITY
European Patent Office | 2022
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