Coverage path planning for autonomous underwater vehicles

This thesis proposes new methods to find collision-free paths allowing an AUV to cover an area of the ocean floor with its sensors, which is known as coverage path planning. First, we propose a coverage path planning method to plan 2D, safe-altitude surveys which provides a principled way to account...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autor: Galceran Yebenes, Enric
Formato: tesis doctoral
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2014
País:España
Recursos:CBUC, CESCA
Repositorio:TDR. Tesis Doctorales en Red
OAI Identifier:oai:www.tdx.cat:10803/133832
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10803/133832
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Robotics
Robòtica
Robótica
Submarines
Submarins
Submarinos
Planning
Planificació
Planificación
Motion planning
AUV
Autonomous underwater vehicles
Vehicles submarins autònoms
Vehículos submarinos autónomos
Oceanography
Oceanografia
Oceanografía
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Descrição
Resumo:This thesis proposes new methods to find collision-free paths allowing an AUV to cover an area of the ocean floor with its sensors, which is known as coverage path planning. First, we propose a coverage path planning method to plan 2D, safe-altitude surveys which provides a principled way to account for obstacles in AUV survey planning. Its main advantage is that it minimizes redundant coverage when the vehicle navigates at constant depth, leading to shorter paths. Second, we provide a method to account for the uncertainty in the vehicle position estimates when planning 2D surveys. The method minimizes the uncertainty induced by the path and leads to better maps of the ocean floor as a result. Third, we provide a coverage path planning method suitable for inspecting areas of the ocean floor including 3D structures. The resulting coverage paths enable applications requiring close proximity and allow viewpoints for full 3D sensing of the structure. Moreover, by contrast to most existing methods, we provide two techniques to adapt the planned path in realtime using sensor information acquired on-line during the mission, rather than only planning the path off-line and relying on the unrealistic assumption of an idealized path execution by the AUV. The proposed methods are validated in simulation and in experiments with a real-world AUV