Advanced Modeling Techniques for Mission Planning of Marine Multi-Vehicles systems: What’s Next?

This paper aims to explore a selection of algorithms useful for mission planning of systems of many Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) in the underwater environment. Specific attention is put on vehicle routing and path planning problems. Two main classes of approaches are explored: centralized and decentralized control, with possible intermediate solutions. We highlight pros and cons of both approaches and we open new scenarios, where decentralized control will be increasingly adopted, benefiting from its properties of adaptability to changing and/or unknown environments.