Autonomous underwater vehicle navigation scheme for cable following

Abstract

A navigation scheme for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) following underwater cables is presented. The objective in following the cable is to capture a video of the cable for inspection purposes. Two main practical difficulties arising in using optical images for navigation are considered and a sensor fusion scheme is proposed to overcome these problems. The paper presents experimental results obtained by implementing this algorithm in the AUV, called 'Twin-Burger 2'. Field tests were carried out in testing tanks as well as in lake waters. The results indicates that the proposed navigation scheme could handle the two practical problems and achieve cable following.