An Adaptive Mapping Strategy for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

This paper specifically focuses on the control of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) in mapping ocean processes. An adaptive control algorithm is proposed in this paper to control the heading of an AUV. The algorithm can be used to control a scout AUV typically used in multi-vehicle strategies to search for areas with potential rich information before secondary vehicles are called to further investigate the areas. Two control algorithms, proportional, integral and derivative (PID) and fuzzy logic, were compared based on their simplicity and practicality to be applied in the proposed adaptive sampling strategy. Simulation results indicated that the proposed strategy had the potential to be used for mapping oceanographic features in field trials. The results also showed that the fuzzy logic control was less sensitive to the change in its parameters compared to the PID when used in the proposed algorithm.