Abstract
National Maritime Research Institute (NMRI) has been studying the development of multi-vehicle operation technology for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and an autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) mainly from the viewpoint of efficient operation. These results were obtained through our participation in the 2nd term Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP2), “Innovative Technology for Exploration of Deep Sea Resources” in Japan. In the project, NMRI is promoting an advanced control system for AUVs initiatively together with the lead agency, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC).
This paper is placed as the second report in the series. The contents of the paper show the results of the fundamental formation control with three cruising AUVs and one ASV in the sea, and the results of AUV-AUV positioning and communication tests with two hovering AUVs. As a result, in the case of the trial of the fundamental formation control, seafloor topography mapping at the coast in Japan was successfully conducted by the AUVs control system. Moreover, two hovering AUVs navigated with positioning and communication each other in the sea having no problem.
The results of the two trials are reported and summarized.