Yordanova, Veronika; (2018) Intelligent adaptive underwater sensor networks. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) technology has reached a sufficient maturity level to be considered a suitable alternative to conventional Mine Countermeasures (MCM). Advantages of using a network of AUVs include time and cost efficiency, no personnel in the minefield, and better data collection. A major limitation for underwater robotic networks is the poor communication channel. Currently, acoustics provides the only means to send messages beyond a few metres in shallow water, however the bandwidth and data rate are low, and there are disturbances, such as multipath and variable channel delays, making the communication non-reliable. The solution this thesis proposes using a network of AUVs for MCM is the Synchronous Rendezvous (SR) method --- dynamically scheduling meeting points during the mission so the vehicles can share data and adapt their future actions according to the newly acquired information. Bringing the vehicles together provides a robust way of exchanging messages, as well as means for regular system monitoring by an operator. The gains and losses of the SR approach are evaluated against a benchmark scenario of vehicles having their tasks fixed. The numerical simulation results show the advantage of the SR method in handling emerging workload by adaptively retasking vehicles. The SR method is then further extended into a non-myopic setting, where the vehicles can make a decision taking into account how the future goals will change, given the available resource and estimation of expected workload. Simulation results show that the SR setting provides a way to tackle the high computational complexity load, common for non-myopic solutions. Validation of the SR method is based on trial data and experiments performed using a robotics framework, MOOS-IvP. This thesis develops and evaluates the SR method, a mission planning approach for underwater robotic cooperation in communication and resource constraint environment.

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