AUV reactive planning: deepest point

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) capable of adapting their mission planning in response to sensor data have applicability in a variety of applications. For example, to find the source of a chemical in a fluid environment, an AUV could search a region until it detects the chemical plume, then steer the vehicle based on real-time chemical detections and flow information to maneuver the vehicle toward the odor source. Behavior based planning (BBP) is a reactive mission planning approach that is ideally suited for such applications. This article reviews behavior based planning, describes an example BBP designed to locate the deepest location within a test area, and includes results from in-water experiments on a REMUS AUV. This experiment was a test exercise in preparation for the use of BBP on a REMUS class vehicle to trace chemical plumes to their source.