Multi-agent Teams for Underwater Surveillance

In this paper we present a novel and relevant application for multi-agent systems which is to implement autonomy for Multistatic Sonar. Multistatic Sonar is used in Antisubmarine Warfare and exploits multiple aspects on the target generated by multiple acoustic sources and receivers. We propose to use a team of unmanned underwater vehicles starting with search operations as covert receivers and then switching to pursuit operations as actively communicating multistatic receivers. This results in a safe, persistent and efficient surveillance system. With the help of a simulation setup and data from recent experiments at sea, we explain what are the specific challenges related to the Multistatic Sonar setup. These challenges are mainly related to the highly nonlinear measurement model and to communication constraints. We then briefly outline a potential “baseline” solution for the overall system architecture capable to face these challenges.