This paper presents the development of autonomy capability for an unmanned surface vehicle (USV). The development mainly focuses on the high-level autonomy on perception, path planning, guidance and control to achieve real sea applications of the USV. First, visual recognition and point cloud data processing techniques are utilized to achieve a real-time perception of the object in the sea environment. Second, detailed path planning strategies are illustrated to plan the easily reachable path for different missions, and the classic guidance and heading controller are adopted to implement the path following algorithm. Subsequently, these autonomy algorithms run in the high-level computer and render the actuator commands for the low-level embedded control system. Finally, sea trials of the USV are conducted by attending the 2020 Zhuhai Wanshan International Intelligent Vessel Competition (IIVC) in Dong Ao Island of South China Sea. The USV accomplish three missions: 1) path following, 2) navigating around the obstacle, and 3) rescuing the drowning. Sea trial results verify the autonomy of the USV in terms of the achieved performances.

International audienceCooperative Acoustic Navigation Scheme for Heterogenous Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

AEGIR is a time-domain seakeeping CFD code that uses an advanced, high-order boundary element method (BEM) to solve the three-dimensional potential-flow and has been developed for several years. In this paper, the latest version of AEGIR is used to predict the seakeeping of the Tri-SWACH with and without side hulls in headsea regular waves respectively. The primary objective was to evaluate its accuracy of predicting seakeeping performance of the Tri-SWACH under regular headsea waves in AEGIR. A series of simulated time domain heave and pitch responses for Tri-SWACH with and without side hulls via AEGIR have been compared with corresponding model tests conducted in the high speed towing tank in Davidson Lab, Stevens Institute of Technology. A good agreement in terms of heave and pitch responses between AEGIR numerical predictions and experimental data shows the seakeeping prediction capability of AEGIR for Tri-SWACH Preliminary Design. Also, the simulated seakeeping of a Tri-SWACH is compared with a Tri-SWACH center hull. It is found that the effects of side hulls will increase the transverse stability of the Tri-SWACH without causing additional significant effect on the seakeeping performance of the Tri-SWACH.