Preliminary Simulation Study of Combined Control and Cooperative Navigation for Underwater Vehicles

This paper reports a preliminary feasibility study for combined control and navigation in a loop utilizing a nonlinear second-order dynamic vehicle process model in the cooperative-navigation framework of underwater vehicles equipped with an acoustic modem, attitude, and depth sensors, but lacking a Doppler velocity log (DVL), and a surface vehicle equipped with an acoustic modem and GPS. The case of underwater vehicle navigation without a DVL is of interest in several use-cases, including (a) small and low cost underwater vehicles for which DVLs may be impractical or infeasible due to their size and cost and (b) for missions in which the vehicle's altitude above the sea floor (or depth beneath overhead ice) exceeds the DVL acoustic bottom-lock range. To the best of our knowledge, no previous study has examined the combined control and cooperative navigation of low-cost underwater vehicles without a DVL utilizing a dynamic model of the submerged vehicles motion in the cooperative navigation algorithm. The anecdotal simulation results presented herein suggest that it may be feasible to do combined control and navigation utilizing a dynamic process model without a DVL in cooperative navigation.