Enhancement of AUV Autonomy Using Backseat Driver Control Architecture

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill accident (April 2010) in the Gulf of Mexico released an unprecedented amount crude oil, much which was trapped around 1000m below surface. has attracted worldwide attention and promoted many autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) projects. principal objective of our project is to establish a Backseat Driver control architecture for AUV monitor undissolvable marine pollutants. Our scope work focuses on validating new method manoeuvre control by implementing the Missions Oriented Operating Suite (MOOS-IvP) Backseat system that newly integrated the Memorial University Newfoundland (MUN) Explorer AUV. A Ping360 scanning sonar, as main in-situ sensor, was integrated with vehicle. This enabled capability to survey horizontal sectors up 360° ranges up-to 50m from real-time evaluate information sonar reflections from objects surrounding vehicle without a human-operator-in-the-loop. We validated of this intelligent Driving through three sets of field experiments were conducted October – November 2020 Newfoundland, Canada. 