A Real-time Approach to Optimal Energy-Consumption for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles in Unknown Time-Varying Flow Fields
Jorge Luis Bustamante
This paper concerns the estimation of optimal energy paths to dose power demands in autonomous underwater vehicles with the end to achieve maximal autonomy in the presence of a flow field. The trajectories searched for are parameterized and structured on a grid (usually employed in sampling missions on the sea bottom) with a relative orientation with respect to the current flow. The optimal solution is a set of cruise velocities along the path. A practical approach is developed in real time for accomplishing path corrections due to spurious in the flow. A theoretical background is developed and a simulation study is given with comparative optimal and suboptimal solutions.