TY - GEN
T1 - Low altitude tracking of rugged seafloors for autonomous visual observation
AU - Maki, Toshihiro
AU - Ura, Tamaki
AU - Mizushima, Hayato
AU - Kondo, Hayato
AU - Sakamaki, Takashi
AU - Yanagisawa, Masao
PY - 2007/10/1
Y1 - 2007/10/1
N2 - While visual observation is an ideal method for detailed survey of seafloors, it is still difficult for an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) to track rugged terrains at low altitudes of ideal 1 to 2 meters. This paper proposes a real-time navigation architecture for hovering class AUVs equipped with perceptional sensors looking forwards, sideways and downward, to operate under such conditions. The method controls vertical motion while placing almost no restrictions on motion in the horizontal plane, achieving high compatibility with existing navigation scheme. The algorithm is a hybrid of sensor and map based approaches where the vehicle continually updates a local geometrical map of hazard areas using its perceptional measurements while performing conventional auto-altitude tracking. If the vehicle enters any of the hazard areas, sensor based control is invoked with depth as the control reference to elevate the AUV until it passes the hazard area. The method was verified through tank experiments using the AUV Tri-Dog 1. The AUV successfully followed a lawn-mower trajectory over a rugged terrain consisting of knolls and slopes while maintaining an extremely low altitude of 1.2 meters.
AB - While visual observation is an ideal method for detailed survey of seafloors, it is still difficult for an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) to track rugged terrains at low altitudes of ideal 1 to 2 meters. This paper proposes a real-time navigation architecture for hovering class AUVs equipped with perceptional sensors looking forwards, sideways and downward, to operate under such conditions. The method controls vertical motion while placing almost no restrictions on motion in the horizontal plane, achieving high compatibility with existing navigation scheme. The algorithm is a hybrid of sensor and map based approaches where the vehicle continually updates a local geometrical map of hazard areas using its perceptional measurements while performing conventional auto-altitude tracking. If the vehicle enters any of the hazard areas, sensor based control is invoked with depth as the control reference to elevate the AUV until it passes the hazard area. The method was verified through tank experiments using the AUV Tri-Dog 1. The AUV successfully followed a lawn-mower trajectory over a rugged terrain consisting of knolls and slopes while maintaining an extremely low altitude of 1.2 meters.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=34748926362&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1109/UT.2007.370771
DO - 10.1109/UT.2007.370771
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:34748926362
SN - 1424412080
SN - 9781424412082
T3 - International Symposium on Underwater Technology, UT 2007 - International Workshop on Scientific Use of Submarine Cables and Related Technologies 2007
SP - 488
EP - 494
BT - International Symposium on Underwater Technology, UT 2007 - International Workshop on Scientific Use of Submarine Cables and Related Technologies 2007
T2 - International Symposium on Underwater Technology, UT 2007 - International Workshop on Scientific Use of Submarine Cables and Related Technologies 2007
Y2 - 17 April 2007 through 20 April 2007
ER -