Application of CAN-bus to the control system of the TESTBED AUV

A new distributed control system using CAN-bus for our long-range autonomous underwater vehicle named TESTBED is developed. In the well defined hierarchical architecture, this control system consists of a task layer with the multi-function Tele-operator, a coordination layer with the Mission Management Center, and a control layer with the Navigation and Control Center and other execution-level controllers. All the control nodes communicate with each other through the CAN bus with the proper defined message frames. The real-time control and non-realtime tasks management are assigned to different control nodes, which make the whole system more reliable, maintainable, and easy to upgrade. In the real in-water experiments, the distributed control system fulfilled the multi-waypoints tasks, and the AUV executed the preprogrammed mission completely without any fault.