Research on Path Planning of Underwater Vehicle with Optimal Energy Consumption

Aiming at the problem of “the shortest distance is not the lowest energy consumption” in the traditional path optimisation algorithm, an autonomous underwater vehicle path optimisation algorithm based on the energy-optimal improved ant colony algorithm is proposed. The algorithm establishes the force model of the underwater vehicle in the process of moving through the hydrodynamic analysis of the underwater vehicle, obtains the energy consumption calculation formula of the moving path of the vehicle, and proposes an improved ant colony algorithm with optimal energy consumption, which adopts the inverse of the energy consumption of the path as the value of the path pheromone, and achieves the purpose of the energy consumption guiding the evolution of the ant colony. The experimental results show that: the path length of the algorithm is 2356.4m, the energy consumption of the underwater vehicle is 114720J, and the number of iterations of the algorithm is 19 times, while the path length of the traditional distance optimal algorithm is 2350.8m, the energy consumption of the underwater vehicle is 115390J, and the number of iterations of the algorithm is 14 times. Although the path distance planned by this algorithm is longer than the traditional algorithm, the energy consumption is reduced, which is advantageous for reducing the energy consumption of the underwater vehicle and improving the endurance.