Motion planning and control of UVMS: a unified dynamics-based approach

In this paper, we present a new unified motion planning algorithm for autonomous Underwater Vehicle-Manipulator Systems (UVMS) that considers the variability in dynamics bandwidth of such a complex system and generates both kinematically admissible and dynamically feasible reference trajectories. Additionally, this motion planning algorithm exploits the inherent kinematic redundancy of the system and provides reference trajectories that can accommodate thruster and actuator faults and saturation, and minimizes hydrodynamic drag. This unified algorithm is verified by extensive computer simulations and the results are presented here.