A path planning and following algorithm of observing targets for the UVMS Robocutt-I

The paper investigates a path planning and following algorithm of observing targets for an underwater vehicle-manipulator system(UVMS). The algorithm including the operational task assignment and path following for the UVMS is proposed. The operational task assignment consists of path planning and task assignment. Path planning provides planned trajectory distance between any two targets for task assignment, and task assignment produces a suitable task order for the minimum of the UVMS sailing distance. In path planning, the shortest path considering UVMS nonholonomic constraints-Dubins curve, is employed. It is implemented by matrix transformation. Then a digraph is generated by marking the shortest distance between any two targets. Hence the task assignment problem is considered as a traveling salesman problem, which can be achieved by the genetic algorithm. Finally a path-following guidance method is employed. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.