Experimental Verification of a Coordinated Path-Following Strategy for Underactuated Marine Vehicles

This work presents the results of an experimental verification of a coordinated path following strategy for underactuated marine vehicles. The coordinated path following strategy is presented, and is then experimentally verified using three autonomous underwater vehicles. The vehicles are required to coordinate their motion along spatially separated straight-line paths to obtain a desired formation. The vehicles are steered to the paths using an integral line-of-sight guidance approach that allows the vehicles to reject constant ocean currents. Simultaneously, the coordination is achieved by adjusting the velocity based on the along-path distance. First, simulation results are presented, which serve as benchmarks for the experimental results. Furthermore, the simulations are used to show the effect of changing different parameters. The simulation results are performed using high-fidelity hardware simulation models. The results obtained from experiments in the harbor of Porto are then presented and compared with the results of the simulation.