A USV platform for surface autonomy

Development of an autonomous unmanned surface vehicle (USV) that may serve as a mother ship for a small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and a small autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), in support of surface autonomy in sensing and surveillance missions, is described. The USV development includes implementation of low-level controls, stereovision perception, and a task-oriented high-level planner, which includes vehicle localization, mapping of the surrounding and path planning as well as accounting for navigation regulations such as COLREGS. Results of the ongoing development and execution of waypoint-based, and vision-based autonomous missions for both the USV and the UAV using the Pixhawk / Ardupilot framework are described.