Software design techniques for the man-machine interface to autonomous underwater vehicles

An integrated simulator, which is used in the research and development of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV), is introduced. It is constructed using the SGI workstation connected to other computers via Ethernet. This simulator can display the scene of the underwater virtual world, describe the motions of the underwater vehicle, and simulate a number of sensors. We use this simulator to develop the software of the intelligent control system for AUV, and study the dynamics of the underwater vehicle, pattern recognition, etc. The use of the simulator can greatly reduce the time and money spent in AUV development and risks in future sea test