A time-optimal path planning method for AUV docking under geometrical constraints

Challenges in ocean environment bring complexities for AUV docking, including ocean currents, obstacles and geometrical constraints. This paper proposed an evolutionary-based method, to optimize the docking path. First, the ocean environment and constraints are analysed and modelled. Next, the control points are designed to satisfy the model constraints. Then, the adaptive law and mutation operator are introduced in Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), to achieve the global time-optimization. Finally, the proposed approach is evaluated via Monte-Carlo trials, which demonstrates a significant improvement with respect to the state-of-the-art approaches.