Development and Field Testing of an Optimal Path Following ASV Controller for Marine Surveys

Marine autonomous vehicles deployed to conduct marine geophysical surveys are becoming an increasingly used asset in the commercial, academic, and defense industries. However, the ability to collect high-quality data from applicable sensors is directly related to the robustness of vehicle motion caused by environmental disturbances. In this paper we designed and integrated a new path following controller on an autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) that minimizes the linear and angular accelerations on the sensor's local frame. Simulation and experimental results verify reduction of vehicle motion, improvement in path following, and improvement in preliminary sonar data quality compared to that of the existing proportional-yaw path following controller.