Autonomous underwater pipeline inspection in AUTOTRACKER PROJECT: the simulation module

This paper presents a detailed description of the simulation environment employed in the development of the autonomous navigation module of an underwater vehicle. The simulation module includes simple linear equations describing the vehicle dynamics, a specification to describe the seabed as well as the target to be tracked (pipeline or cable), and a communication frame-work replicating the one used in the runtime environment in the real submarine. Some comparisons between the simulated missions and the real ones carried out in the North Sea, are shown as a way to validate the developed simulation environment called ATMEnvs.