Visual-Based Navigation of an Autonomous Tugboat

This paper presents the work of a team of undergraduate and graduate students at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) who compete in the annual Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) competition held by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI). The theoretical concept of the vehicle, the design modification and fabrication process, and the results of both preliminary testing and the final competition are presented. The initial configuration of a stereoscopic vision system and navigation algorithm is explored through testing in a controlled environment. With this approach, the vehicle is shown to be capable of navigating precisely through various courses of colored buoys; approximately 25% of the attempts results in successful navigation of all buoy pairs while 75% of the attempts result in successful navigation of half the buoy pairs or more.