Marine Autonomous Exploration Using a Lidar and SLAM

This paper presents the implementation of a 2D-lidar to a model-scale surface vessel, and the design of a control system that makes the vessel able to perform autonomous exploration of a small-scale marine environment by the use of the lidar and SLAM. This includes a presentation and discussion of experimental results. The completion of this system has involved the development of a suitable control system that merges exploration strategies, path planners, a motion controller, and a strategy for generating controller setpoints. The system was implemented on the Robot Operating System platform, which made it possible to utilize open-source algorithms for state of the art SLAM.