Behavior-based collision free path following control of an autonomous underwater vehicle

To make an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) capable of avoiding multiple obstacles in proximity along its track path planned by the global path planning algorithms, the collision free path following control is proposed within the behavior-based system architecture including two basic behaviors, namely the path following behavior and the obstacle avoidance behavior. In the path following behavior, the AUV's yaw command is designed by the nonlinear cross-tracking control technique to make the path following errors globally asymptotically stable. Meanwhile, the obstacle avoidance behavior is accomplished using the fuzzy logic methodology with the ranges and bearings of the obstacles measured by the forward looking sonar. The arbitrator chooses the active behavior according to the signs and magnitudes of the desired head change angles of the two behaviors. Simulation results demonstrate the obstacle avoidance capability of the AUV following the planned path.