Cooperative Control of a Team of AUVs Using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics With Restricted Communication

In this paper, the problem of controlling a team of AUVs in an environment containing obstacles and under communication restrictions is addressed. The control methodology is decentralized and utilizes Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH), which allows each agent to be modeled as a single fluid particle, with forces acting upon it. Studies are conducted concerning the effect of the interpolation kernel’s width to allow uniform distribution of the vehicles in the goal region. The ability to model an adverse region using the SPH methodology is also addressed. Simulations are included that demonstrate the effect that the kernel’s width has on the dynamics of the system, as well as the effect of modeling adverse particles in the domain.