A feasibility study for a long range autonomous underwater vehicle

Findings are presented of a study to determine the feasibility of developing and demonstrating a long range autonomous underwater vehicle. Based on a real world scale program need, a technology development and capability demonstration program is described. The program objectives necessary to provide a proof of principle including expected system performance capabilities are described together with an activity program for the demonstration system. Sensor systems for navigation, obstacle avoidance, passive detection, vehicle motion and vehicle health are described. Particular attention is paid to the discussion of the hardware and software architecture for the system with an emphasis on providing as much top-down guidance as possible and to exploit sensor modality differences to produce complementary perceptual processes in the system. The discussion of the software includes the application of a system capable of supporting parallelism in its knowledge source modules and a organized collection of perceptual and navigation modules tied together through a blackboard. The paper describes the database/communication system, the AUV and system block diagram together with the issues which are inherent in the integration of the multiple sensors of the system. Path planning abilities are described against a background of actual sonar-depth data obtained during the study. Simulations of a proposed vehicle, including six degrees of freedom, in a marine environment are described. The evolution of the AUV system from simulation through component testing to the at sea demonstration is discussed.