Sonar-based guidance of unmanned underwater vehicles

This paper addresses the problem of the design and coordination of guidance and sonar-based motion estimation algorithms for unmanned underwater vehicles. In the framework of a two-layered hierarchical architecture uncoupling the system's dynamics and kinematics, a couple of guidance laws for approaching a target with the desired orientation and following an environmental feature have been designed with Lyapunov-based techniques. Suitable acoustic-based estimators of the corresponding operational variables have been designed and integrated with the guidance and control system. A finite state machine combined with a suitable interface for event generation allows the coordinated execution of basic guidance and motion estimation tasks to carry out more complex functions. Experimental results of pool trials of a prototype unmanned underwater vehicle executing free-space maneuvering, wall-following, tasks and the more complex mission of following the perimeter of the trial pool are reported and discussed.