Path planning and tracking for autonomous underwater vehicles

Path planning is basis for any autonomous underwater vehicle to implement completely cruising in subsea environment and path tracking is important technology as well, especially for multi-AUV (Autonomous underwater vehicle) cruising with a fleet formate. In this paper, algorithms path planning and path tracking are addressed for an open frame AUV. Fast Marching algorithm is applied to solve problems of AUV path planning. Simulation shows the employed method is of good performance in convergency and reliability, so can fulfill demand of real-time for AUV control system. Furthermore, path tracking algorithm based on turning maneuver and straight running maneuver in the case of keeping fixed depth is designed, simulation results verify the effectivity of proposed methods.