A simulation model for AUV navigation

In this paper, a simulation model is developed to test AUV navigation applications. The simulation model consists of a canonical class of simulated object, multiple instances of which are related in a hierarchical manner, to model all physical objects that reside in a unified underwater environment. Each object is part of a world environment which is composed of computer maps represented by n-variable discrete (e.g. bintree, quadtree, octtree) or continuous analytic (B-spline or faceted) functions. The constituent parts of each object are: (1) sensor model-virtual sensors used to measure properties of the environment and global (true) object state in order to establish local object state; (2) command model-control algorithms (e.g. layered control) used to model behavioral characteristics of the object and to issue commands that change the global object state based on the local object state information obtained from the sensor models; (3) dynamic model-model used to realistically determine the change in global object state caused by commands issued from the command model.