A high-fidelity ocean sampling mobile network (SAMON) simulator testbed for evaluating intelligent control of unmanned underwater vehicles

The Ocean Sampling Mobile Network (SAMON) simulator testbed has been developed at Penn State for designing and evaluating multirobot ocean-mapping missions, in realistic underwater environments, prior to in-water testing. The goal in developing the testbed is to enable web-based integration of high-fidelity simulators of heterogeneous autonomous undersea vehicles from multiple organizations and a variety of on-board and fixed sensors in a realistic ocean environment in order to formulate and evaluate intelligent control strategies for mission execution. A formal control language facilitates real-time interactions between heterogeneous autonomous components. A simulation experiment is described that demonstrates multistage inferencing and decision/control strategies for spatio-temporal coordination and multilayered adaptation of group behavior in response to evolving environmental physics or operational dynamics.