Decentralized Collaborative Planning & Control for Target Interception using a Network of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs)

The main objectives of this Phase II SBIR project are: (1) to implement, test and transition advanced algorithms and strategies for autonomous self-healing/repositioning and maneuvering target detection and pursuit in a network of AUVs, (2) to provide integration and test support for in-water Collaborative AUV demos, (3) Develop enhancements for end-to-end modeling and simulation and offline pre-mission planning and performance predictions for collaborative network of AUVs. Phase I resulted in the preliminary development of algorithms for initial node positioning in the field, pursuit guidance algorithms, and self-healing/repositioning algorithms, and the overall system was tested on a simplified Monte-Carlo simulation of the Collaborative AUV system. In Phase II, we propose to extend Phase I results, provide necessary support for the Autonomy Integration and Test effort, enhance and implement the algorithms developed in Phase I, carry out testing of the system on a higher fidelity simulation, and transition the Phase II results to DARPA programs. The overall goal of the effort is to meet the performance requirements and metrics of the collaborative AUV system in terms of endurance, probabilities of detection, tracking, pursuit and self-healing.