Dynamic Obstacle Avoidance for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles Based on an Improved Velocity Obstacle Method

Abstract

In view of a dynamic obstacle environment with motion uncertainty, we present a dynamic collision avoidance method based on the collision risk assessment and improved velocity obstacle method. First, through the fusion optimization of forward-looking sonar data, the redundancy of the data is reduced and the position, size and velocity information of the obstacles are obtained, which can provide an accurate decision-making basis for next-step collision avoidance. Second, according to minimum meeting time and the minimum distance between the obstacle and unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV), this paper establishes the collision risk assessment model, and screens key obstacles to avoid collision. Finally, the optimization objective function is established based on the improved velocity obstacle method, and a UUV motion characteristic is used to calculate the reachable velocity sets. The optimal collision speed of UUV is searched in velocity space. The corresponding heading and speed commands are calculated, and outputted to the motion control module. The above is the complete dynamic obstacle avoidance process. The simulation results show that the proposed method can obtain a better collision avoidance effect in the dynamic environment, and has good adaptability to the unknown dynamic environment.

Identification and Avoidance of Static and Dynamic Obstacles on Point Cloud for UAVs Navigation

“…[12] proposes the probabilistic safety barrier certificates (PrSBC) to define the space of admissible control actions that are probabilistically safe, which is more compatible for multi-robot systems. [13] adopts the similar relative velocity concept with this paper, while [13] is in the 2D scenario and it samples from the velocity space rather than find the optimal solution.…”

Trajectory Optimization of Pickup Manipulator in Obstacle Environment Based on Improved Artificial Potential Field Method

“…In 2019, Wang, X et al proposed a method for obstacle avoidance with pure azimuth measurement in the absence of a model of obstacle motion [15]. Zhang, W et al proposed a dynamic collision avoidance method based on collision risk assessment and improved speed barrier method [16] for uncertain dynamic obstacle environments in 2017. Jiankun Wang et al described a socially compliant path planning scheme for robotic autonomous luggage trolley collection at airports in 2019 [17].…”

Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Guidance, Navigation, and Control

“…Integrating these latest technological developments was demonstrated last year by Wei et al [16], who integrated the Doppler velocity methods for obstacle monitoring into a dynamic obstacle avoidance scheme for collision avoidance. Following data fusion, a collision risk assessment model is used to avoid collisions, and claims to be effective in unknown dynamic environments, although the experiments did not go so far as to stipulate near-constant ocean currents in addition to harmonic wave actions.…”