Development of smart networks for navigation in dynamic underwater environments

Abstract

This work describes the development of a network of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) for ocean monitoring and surveillance in dynamic environments. The key component of the system is the ecoSUB vehicle, a small and low cost AUV that acts as a mobile node of the network. Although limited when compared to more traditional assets such as ships or larger and more expensive AUVs, once networked these vehicles can obtain a gain that goes beyond the capabilities of each individual platform, representing a step change in the accessibility to autonomous system use in science and commercial applications. This paper reports results towards the implementation of such a network, describing the communication and localisation infrastructure that it has been built to support it. Experimental results from an initial trail undertaken in Vobster Quay, UK in July 2018 are reported showing the gain in localisation performance that the ecoSUBs can achieve.