Integrated Command, Control and Communication for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

The paper presents a novel integration of underwater communication, localization, command and control for the purpose of point-to-point movement of an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). An acoustic communication network is used to command the AUV to a desired point within the coordinate frame of the network which provides two-dimensional localization. This information is fused with path planning and control algorithms. A PID controller is developed, tested, and tuned, allowing the AUV to maintain a desired heading to accurately maneuver to the destination point. A robust multi-process software architecture is developed to eliminate single-point failures during mission critical routines. The integrated algorithms and hardware developed are experimentally tested and validated in a swimming pool.