A terrain-covering algorithm for an AUV

Abstract

An efficient, on-line terrain-covering algorithm is presented for a robot (AUV) moving in an unknown three-dimensional underwater environment. Such an algorithm is necessary for producing mosaicked images of the ocean floor. The basis of this three-dimensional motion planning algorithm is a new planar algorithm for nonsimply connected areas with boundaries of arbitrary shape. We show that this algorithm generalizes naturally to complex three-dimensional environments in which the terrain to be covered is projectively planar. This planar algorithm represents an improvement over previous algorithms because it results in a shorter path length for the robot and does not assume a polygonal environment. The path length of our algorithm is shown to be linear in the size of the area to be covered; the amount of memory required by the robot to implement the algorithm is linear in the size of the description of the boundary of the area. An example is provided that demonstrates the algorithm's performance in a nonsimply connected, nonplanar environment.

Olfactory coordinated area coverage

“…Acar and Choset (2000) proposed two methods to sense these points using robot range sensors. Hert et al (1996) proposed an algorithm which does not use cellular decomposition, but incrementally explores the area and covers it using back and forth motions. Here the environment is represented as a combination of inlets and islands that are investigated during the exploration.…”

An efficient underwater coverage method for multi-AUV with sea current disturbances

“…Hert's algorithm is based on a Seed Spreader technique [14] developed for the exploration of known area, and the validity of the method has been proved in terms of path length compared with the Seed Spreader technique. The total path length based on the worst situation using Hert's algorithm [12] can be described as in (15). …”

“…Completeness depends heavily on sea current disturbances, which can have a very large effect on the performance of a coverage algorithm. In this paper, we propose a new dynamic model of an AUV that includes exterior disturbances such as sea current, and we develop a new tool that enables us to eliminate missed areas by calculating efficient exploring widths for an AUV zigzagging with respect to disturbances Hert and Lumelsky [12] present a coverage algorithm that applies to a partially unknown of space where the widths of cells are fixed but the tops and bottoms can have any shape. Their planar terrain-covering algorithm can be applied to both simply and non-simply connected environments.…”

Towards tracking a row of discrete targets with AUVs using Markov Decision Processes and probabilistic techniques

“…Considerable interest has been shown in recent years for using autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to cover and locate specific targets of interest [1], [2]. Current military search doctrine for finding fields of discrete targets dictates that 100% of a searchable area is covered [3] and every target identified and located.…”