The System of Coordinated Operation of Two Underwater Vehicles in a Complex Environment

The paper discusses methods of coordinated operation of two autonomous underwater vehicles, one of which is equipped with a multi-link manipulator and a vision system, and the second - auxiliary - only a vision system. These methods ensure the joint operation of two autonomous underwater vehicles both in the mode of semi-automatic positional remote control, and in the mode of automatic execution of operations with various objects. At the same time, work is considered in situations when the vision system of the main underwater vehicle does not allow observing the object of work, which is nevertheless located in the working area of the manipulator. In this case, the auxiliary inspection underwater vehicle with its own vision system is used to monitor the object. In the semi-automatic remote control mode, the manipulator automatically takes into account the current spatial orientation of the optical axis of the vision system of the inspection underwater vehicle, as well as the spatial orientations of both underwater vehicles at yaw angles in the absolute coordinate system. And in automatic mode, an accurate transfer of the spatial location and orientation of the object, which are determined using the vision system of the inspection underwater vehicle, is additionally provided to the associated coordinate system of the main underwater vehicle. It is possible to identify and eliminate errors that occur during the operation of the vision system and navigation systems of both underwater vehicles. The results of experimental studies have confirmed the operability of the proposed methods.