Development of an Autonomous Surface Vehicle capable of tracking Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

This work presents an Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) with tracking capability. The ASV is able to follow after an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) without prior knowledge of the AUV's actual position. Tracking an AUV can significantly increase the communication range and bandwidth of the transferred data, which means that the AUV can operate without nearby operators. Mathematical models to represent ASV's kinematics and kinetics were developed as well as a controller that takes into account sea wave effects. Simulations of the ASV with a ranger interrogator system was developed to test the tracking algorithm. The proposed method allows computing the possible location of the AUV, which can be used to reduce the navigation error of the AUV. This method was tested both in a simulation environment and at sea trials in the Red Sea. In both cases, the algorithm performed well and precise tracking was achieved.