A Proposal for the Control of Teams of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) in Hierarchical and Peripheral Modes Using the Concept of Adaptive Autonomy

In this paper we discuss the further development of approaches for the control of vehicles with Adaptive Autonomy that have already been successfully used in single Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) for cooperating teams of AUVs. A hierarchical control approach for a single AUV based on the Rational Behaviour Model (RBM) is presented. After the explanation of the concept of Adaptive Autonomy, this concept will be used to transfer the RBM- approach for single AUVs into another which can be used for the control of teams of AUVs. This new concept will contain a software task called ‘team instance’ that is responsible for the realisation of the cooperation between the vehicles. Finally, two concepts for the realisation of the ‘team instance’ are discussed and compared with each other, referring to possible real missions with teams of AUVs.