Autonomous control and simulation of the VideoRay Pro III vehicle using MOOS and IvP Helm

Most underwater vehicles are controlled by human operators through tethered cables which inhibit range and affect the hydrodynamics. The overall performance of these promising vehicles would improve through the employment of higher levels of autonomy. Implementation of open source autonomous guidance software in an off the shelf underwater vehicle is explored here as a solution. Development and implementation of this autonomous guidance and vehicle control is greatly facilitated through the use of an accurate vehicle simulator. Running real world tests of an underwater vehicle is extremely time intensive and error prone. The analysis of the vehicle performance underwater is extremely challenging with limited accurate positioning sensing e.g. GPS. A vehicle simulator allows for faster development of the system by providing vehicle performance information prior to expensive real world missions. This research presents a method for simulation and testing of autonomous guidance and control in a vehicle accurate simulator for the VideoRay Pro III underwater vehicle and demonstrates the capability through simulated examples and analysis.