Research Of AUV Formation Control Method Using Acoustic Communication And Observation

MAUVS (Multiple Autonomous Underwater Vehicles System) is a hot topic of AUV research recently. Besides, it is one of the most important developing trend of AUV technology. Having the ablility of being formated is a basic condition of cooperation among AUVs. In this paper, it provides a new formation control method using acoustic communication and observation. Specific content is as follows:First, it analyses the classification of MAUVS structure and provides a layered system structure. It divides MAUVS into three layers:cooperation layer, control layer and sensor/actuator layer. The mathematical model related to single AUV in MAUVS is presented.Second, it provides a solution for three-dimentional formation control of MAUVS based on potential field method and leader-follower approach. A multi-beam sonar vision model and a maximum acoustic transmitting distance model are also introduced.Third, to deal with the communication problem in MAUVS, it introduces the DSR (Dynamic Source Route) protocol model which has been widely used in radio networks. It analyses the specific process of the protocol. Then it sums up the advantages and disadvantages of DSR. To improve the performance of DSR, a acoustic communication byte error rate model and a packet transmitting success rate model are introduced. Further more, it provides a improved protocol based on DSR for MAUVS. The process of the new protocol is also introduced. To compare network performance with those two protocols, it presents a simulation experiment. Simulation result shows that the new protocol has better network performance than the original one in acoustic environment.Finally, the formation control method developed in this paper is verified in simulated environment. Simulation results show that with this method, AUVs can be formatted easily and formation can be changed into any shape rapidly. In three-dimentional envirionment with obstacles, AUV can avoid obstacles while avoiding each other from being collided. Then it provides two simulation cases for the implement of MAUVS. Considering communication failure, it compares formation performance with those two protocols. Simulation result shows that MAUVS can get larger formation range with the new protocol.