A Review of Guidance Laws Applicable to Unmanned Underwater Vehicles

Abstract

The main problem in bringing autonomy to any vehicle lies in the design of a suitable guidance law. For truly autonomous operation, the vehicle needs to have a reliable Navigation, Guidance and Control (NGC) system of which the guidance system is the key element that generates suitable trajectories to be followed. In this review paper, various guidance laws found in the literature and their relevance to autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are discussed. Since existing guidance laws for underwater vehicles have emulated from tactical airborne missile systems, a number of approaches for the missile guidance systems are considered. Finally, potential guidance strategies for AUVs are proposed.

Some Issues on the Design of a Low-Cost Autonomous Underwater Vehicle with an Intelligent Dynamic Mission Planner for Pipeline and Cable Tracking

“…This is known as the line-of-sight (LOS) guidance law (Naeem et al, 2003). The speed envelope using an ideal particle approach, recently proposed (Breivik and Fossen, 2005) was also tested in computer simulation (Valenciaga et al, 2007), but not yet ported to the prototype.…”

A Novel Integrated Guidance and Control System Design in Formation Flight

“…Pure pursuit guidance law and proportional navigation guidance law are the most conventional methods which are used for guiding goals (Naeem et al 2003). In this paper pure pursuit law is chosen for its simplicity and its accuracy in formation flight (Enomoto et al 2010).…”

“…Leader aircra sight in line of target movement. In other words, the direction of the velocity vector has to be in line with the target site (Naeem et al 2003). Just like missile system, we can use the pure pursuit guidance law in formation flight.…”

Chemical Signal Guided Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

“…For the chemical signal guided AUV, the guidance system combined with the AMP decides the best trajectory to be followed by the AUV based on the chemical information and vehicle capability. Although many guidance systems exist for use on the land and air vehicles, there are few, if any systems designed for AUVs (Naeem et al, 2003). The AUV guidance system is divided into four guidance modes: Go To Point mode, Follow Line mode, Go To Point with Heading mode, and Cage mode.…”