Formation maneuvering using passive acoustic communications

Interest in the use of unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) for both commercial and military uses is growing. Control of UUVs poses a difficult problem because traditional methods of communication and navigation, i.e. radio and GPS, are not effective due to the properties of seawater. Control and communication algorithms were developed to carry out multiple UUV formation maneuvering using acoustic communications and first tested in computer simulation and then on mobile robots. Three control schemes, classic logic, behavior, and neural network were tested in line formations in both simulator and lab environments. Results and issues are discussed along with future directions.