Composite Astar and B-spline algorithm for path planning of autonomous underwater vehicle

Autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is a kind of marine robot used to execute underwater missions in the sea, such as hydrographic survey, anti-submarine work, hydrospace prospecting and energy resource mining. While AUV performs various underwater activities, path planning plays an important role on driving the vehicle to desired mission area. Path planning aims to generate a feasible path for AUV from one start place to another in a target environment. Astar algorithm is a classic method in path planning for mobile robot. In this paper, composite Astar and B-spline method is proposed to generate C
²
path to fit with the requirement of motion constraints of the AUV, which wipes out the discontinuous characteristics due to the multi-segment p.