Perseus AUV: Towards Linear Convoying of Agile A-Sized AUVs Through Acoustic Track-and-Trail

Abstract

We present the Perseus autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) - an A-sized a a A-size stands for the standard sonobuoy [2] form factor, with a maximum diameter of 124 mm and a length of around 0.9 m, ensuring the ability to launch from standard sonobuoy launchers onboard a wide array of fixed wing and rotary wing air crafts, surface ships and submarines [3] micro AUV, outfitted with a low-cost passive inverted ultra-short baseline (piUSBL) acoustic reception system, which allows it to acoustically track-and-trail a leader vehicle that carries an acoustic transmission source. With a long-term goal of linear convoying of multiple A-sized AUVs, in this work, we used an unmanned surface vehicle (USV) towing an acoustic source, as a proxy for a lead AUV, demonstrating that the Perseus AUV is able to successfully track-and-trail a leader vehicle. The AUV was also outfitted with a tuna-inspired morphing fin mechanism that allowed the vehicle to achieve good directional stability as well as good maneuverability; properties that are useful for linear convoying AUVs, but are presently difficult to achieve because they impose contradictory requirements. We demonstrated this system with real-world, in-water experiments in the Charles river, Massachusetts, USA.