Control of an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle for Environmental Surveying (MARIUS)

Abstract An unmanned untethered underwater vehicle, MARIUS (Marine Utility Vehicle System), is under development under the MAST-programme (Marine Science and Technology) coordinated by the Commission of the European Communities. Typical applications include environmental surveying of the seabed and pipeline inspections in coastal areas (max. water depth 600 m). The prototype vehicle is battery driven and has a mission range of 10-30 km. Fully autonomous behaviour is achieved by integrating in an on board resident computer modules for acoustic positioning, navigation, control and communications. A Mission management system (MMS) coordinates the different modules and performs failure detection, mission performance assessment and task scheduling. This paper describes the present and envisaged future stages of the project. Special emphasis is given to the propulsion and control systems, which must provide accurate tracking of reference trajectories in the presence of sea current disturbances and payload variation.