UAVs and AUVs coordination for ocean exploration

Abstract

In this paper, we develop a coordination mechanismfor multiple Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and asingle Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) cooperatively performinga ocean exploration mission. The UAV and the AUVs have limitedsensor and communication constraints. The AUVs are deployedin the ocean and surface when their mission leg is completed.The UAV flies over the AUV, acquires the information procuredby the AUV and generates a new mission plan to the AUV.The UAV has to meet all the AUVs and reach the base stationwithin a prescribed sortie time. However, the AUVs may notcomplete the assigned task and may surface anywhere along thecurrent mission leg. Hence, the UAV has to take the uncertainty ofAUV surfacing into account while it generates the next missionplan to the AUV otherwise it may not satisfy the sortie timeconstraint. We develop a robust mechanism of determining theroute for the UAV and path generation for the AUV such thatthe UAV always reaches the base station within the sortie timelimit. Theoretical results are presented to show the robustnessof the algorithms. Simulations are carried out to show how themission is accomplished.