Abstract—When underwater vehicle need move from point A to point B during the completion of the mission it can be guided by the remote operator or move by itself. Both ways have pros and cons. For autonomous movement, control system needs a safe path that allows to pass the obstacles at the required speed. In previous papers authors already described the development of the control system, position-path movement method, vehicle mathematical model, development of the hull and simulation results. Continuing this project, current paper is devoted to path planning module for the control system of the underwater vehicle. It briefly references the mathematical model, then describes position-path regulator. It is based upon PD law and implemented in discrete form with calculation of D-component using trapezoid formula. Having control variables a yaw angle and longtitudal velocity, regulator outputs desired rotation speed of water screws. Path planning procedure consists of two steps. At first path is calculated on the basis of A*-algorithm using the known scene part. Then dynamic window method modifies the path so that UV moves at required velocity not passing the obstacles at unacceptable distance. Proposed approach was tested in Simulink app and proved to be efficient even in hard scenes with many obstacles.
 

Index Terms—control, underwater vehicles, path planning

Cite: Vyacheslav Pshikhopov, Boris Gurenko, Igor Shapovalov, and Maksim Beresnev, "Development and Research of Path-Planning Module for Control System of Underwater Vehicle," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 301-304, October 2016. DOI: 10.18178/ijmerr.5.4.301-304