Coupling Task Allocation for Heterogeneous AUVs with Communication Constraints

The soft time windows consensus-based bundle algorithm with communication reallocation algorithm (SWCBBA-CR) is proposed to solve the distributed task allocation problem in heterogeneous autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) executing complex coupled tasks cooperatively under communication constraints. Firstly, design a new margin revenue function that considers the impact of AUV characteristics on task allocation. Second, the introduction of soft time windows transformed complex task coupling constraints into a more manageable form to achieve a reasonable task allocation. Furthermore, considering the limitations of underwater acoustic communication range during AUV cluster operations, the real-time positions and task completion status of the cluster are updated whenever changes occur in the communication topology. Then, task reallocation is performed for tasks that were not allocated before T, thus reducing system communication and computation. Finally, the algorithm is applied to simulate and verify the task allocation problem in mine countermeasures scenarios. The simulation results show that the algorithm can quickly and effectively solve the heterogeneous AUV cooperative coupling task allocation problem under communication constraints, with good feasibility and rapidity.