Trajectory Generation for Bathymetry based AUV Navigation and Localization

This paper presents a path planning algorithm to improve the localization estimate of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) based on bathymetry maps without the aid of external landmarks. A particle filter is used in order to fuse the data from an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), a downward pointing sonar and an a priori given bathymetry map. Since this method's performance is dependent on the rugosity of the map, a path planning algorithm is proposed in order to avoid such regions and optimize the particle filter performance. By guiding the vehicle to navigate in regions where the filter performance is acceptable, an efficient landmark-free localization algorithm is devised.