Cooperation between autonomous underwater vehicle manipulations systems with minimal information exchange

The paper describes a novel cooperative control policy for the transportation of large objects in underwater environments using two UVMS (Underwater Vehicle Manipulator Systems). Due to the low bandwidth available in underwater scenarios, the main feature of the paper lies in the fact that the cooperative transportation of the commonly grasped object is carried out successfully by just exchanging the tool frame velocities at each sampling instant. A disturbance compensation technique is also presented to cope with sea currents and vehicle velocity tracking errors.