In order to design new search strategies for collaborating autonomous underwater vehicles, a 2D simulator was developed to simulate costal water environments. This allows for evaluating the new strategies without running the risk of losing expensive hardware during the tests. The simulator developed is based on the concept of cellular automata. Details of the simulator are described before prel...

This paper considers the technology needs for autonomous underwater vehicles as the middle layer of a three-layer process. The first layer is the high level User Requirement, which may be stated in the form of business objectives such as ‘competitive running cost’ or ‘less than 1 hour per week downtime’. These business objectives map on to the middle layer of specific, but generic technology ne...

A fundanental sub-problem of the task of interpreting the sonar data gathered by a mobile subnersible robot vehicle is that of constructing and maintaining a stationary global reference frame in which interpretation can take place. Such a frane nay be established by tracking the movements of objects in the local environment of the robot and using the data so obtained to deduce the motion of the...

Exploratory dives are traditionally the first step for marine scientists to acquire information on a previously unknown area of scientific interest. Manned submersibles have been the platform of choice for such exploration, as they allow a high level of environmental perception by the scientist on-board, and the ability to take informed decisions on what to explore next. However, manned submers...

This paper proposes a swarm-based path-following guidance system for an autonomous marine multi-vehicle system. In particular, a team of Unmanned Surface Vehicles USVs is required to converge to and navigate along a desired reference path, while at the same time aggregating and maintaining a range-based formation configuration. Firstly, a separate description is given for a swarm methodology, i...

This paper investigates the use of commercial modems mounted in a short-baseline (SBL) configuration on an autonomous surface craft (ASC) for tracking other marine vehicles. We have developed a method for tracking an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) from an ASC using one-way range measurements provided by standard Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) modems. The method does not require ...

Technological improvements over the past decade have led to the widespread use of autonomous surface and underwater vehicles for data collection in marine environmental sensing and modeling in coastal environments. However, these vehicles and their sensors still have limitations, especially when tasked with observing highly dynamic or transient processes. We investigate the application of a sma...

A trouble-free flight at low altitude over the disturbed sea surface and also marine landing requires the application of the special methods and means of motion control which are capable to solve the corresponding specific problems. Methods of stability provision and solving some other problems of WIG flight by means of automatic control are analyzed. The requirements for motion control systems...

The use of omnidirectional cameras underwater is enabling many new and exciting applications in multiple fields. Among these, the creation of virtual tours from omnidirectional image surveys is expected to have a large impact in terms of science and conservation outreach. These surveys can be performed by Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) that can cover...

This paper presents the continuation of a project first presented at MIPRO'10 conference. The project includes a small-scale marine platform (PlaDyPos) developed at the Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies (LABUST), University of Zagreb which is used for testing control and guidance algorithms for marine vehicles. The paper focuses on the analysis of experimental results obtained ...