A KINEMATIC VIRTUAL POTENTIALS TRAJECTORY PLANNER FOR AUV-S

This paper deals with trajectory planning for an autonomous, non-communicating submerged vehicle (AUV). Most maneuvering, esp. that related to obstacle avoidance, in a typical mission scenario for an AUV consists of motion at single submerged depth. Therefore a trajectory planning scheme operating in 2D has sufficient merit and applicability. A scheme for trajectory planning with cross-layer features, such as implicit inclusion of obstacle-avoidance and forming up with other moving agents, is developed in a simulated environment, at a kinematic level. The trajectory planner is based on virtual potentials, an approach that guarantees good extendibility, scalability and performance in a hard-real-time hardware-in-the-loop system.