An approach to subsea survey for safe naval transit

A constant challenge for naval platforms is to transit through an area that contains potential targets. We propose a methodology for planning the path of an autonomous underwater vehicle that performs a partial survey of an area, and we propose cost functions that can be used to minimize the cumulative risk for a follow-on naval asset that transits the survey area. Measures of performance used to develop a transit route are based on probability of detection and probability of observing a target. Using these measures of performance, the cost of transiting through the area can be calculated, and the transit path can be optimized. We present simulation results that suggest the utility of this methodology.