Obstacle detection and avoidance for AUV: problem analysis and first results (REDERMOR)

SHORT ABSTRACT: Military Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) shall be able to execute survey missions in both known and unknown environments in order to detect a potential threat. These robots will significantly improve our exploration, analysis and intervention capability and will have a large decisional autonomy. While the primary mission of an AUV is data acquisition and collection (up to now commonly done using side scan sonar or a multibeam echosounder), another important task is to guaranty its own security. To do that, it must be able to know in advance its environment, to detect unexpected events, to analyse them, and to react. The paper occurs after the DEVITOBS’06 (Détection et EVITement d’OBStacles) experiment using two types of sensors mounted on the GESMA Redermor experimental AUV: the forward looking sonar Reson Seabat 8101 with a depression angle of 15° and an echosounders network. It has been divided in three main parts: analysis of the “Obstacle Detection and Avoidance” problem for AUV, information extraction techniques assessment, and discussion about behaviour strategies and mission planning.