Feature-related acoustic guidance of unmanned underwater vehicles

This paper addresses the problem of the design and coordination of guidance and sonar-based motion estimation algorithms for unmanned underwater vehicles. In the framework of a two layered hierarchical architecture uncoupling the system's dynamics and kinematics, a guidance law for following an environmental feature has been designed with Lyapunov-based techniques and integrated with suitable acoustic-based estimators of the corresponding operational variables. A finite state machine combined with a suitable interface for event generation allows the coordinated execution of basic guidance and motion estimation tasks to carry out more complex functions. Experimental results of a prototype UUV executing the coordinated mission of following the perimeter of the trial pool are reported and discussed. Copyright (C) 2001 IFAC.