A Real-Time Approach to Achieve Maximal Autonomy of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles in the Presence of Perturbing Flow Field

Abstract

In this paper a preliminary study of optimal energy systems for autonomous underwater vehicles is presented. A method is developed for achieving maximal autonomy. A general algorithm was developed for the navigation in 6 degrees of freedom in a non-conservative flow field. It is shown that missions with selective starting point beginning with the direction of the flow are much more favorable for the autonomy.