Experimental Test-Bed for Multi-Vehicle Control, Navigation and Communication
Ralf Bachmayer and Naomi Ehrich Leonard
Proceedings 12th International Symposium on Unmanned
Untethered Submersible Technology,
Durham NH, 2001..
In this paper we describe the design and evaluation of the
prototype vehicle for a new test-bed developed for multi-vehicle
control, navigation and communication. The vehicle is designed for
high reliability and easy reconfiguration using smart sensor and
actuator interfaces. It is passively stable in pitch and roll and
is actuated by five thrusters. The actuators allow for full
control of the remaining four degrees of freedom. We are
developing the multi-vehicle test-bed to test control algorithms
that demonstrate coordinated and cooperative behavior of a network
of vehicles for adaptive ocean sampling and other applications. In
our design of coordinating control laws, we are inspired by the
remarkable capabilities of schooling fish. To illustrate, we
describe a multi-vehicle approach to gradient climbing. The simple
control algorithm that we present allows two vehicles that observe
one another to climb a gradient under the constraint that each
vehicle can only take single point measurements.