Autonomous identification planning for mine countermeasures

This paper presents a concept and algorithms to detect, classify and identify mine-like objects within a single mission with an autonomous underwater vehicle. The autonomous mine hunting concept has been developed for the HUGIN series of vehicles. First, the operation area is surveyed either with a synthetic aperture sonar or a side-scanning sonar. During the survey, mine-like objects are detected and classified in the data using algorithms for automatic target recognition. When the survey is complete, a framework for autonomy initiates a fusion of the targets and starts the automatic planning of a mission plan for target identification. The autonomous mine hunting concept is a part of the development of a framework for advanced autonomy on HUGIN, the HUGIN autonomy layer. Implementation of this framework will reduce the risk of long-term AUV missions, and will provide intelligent vehicle behavior not only to re-inspect interesting objects and areas, but also to preserve vehicle safety, navigational accuracy and mission goals.