Efficient autonomous underwater vehicle communication networks using optimal dynamic flows

Underwater vehicles are being increasingly employed in exploring the world's oceans. The communications mechanism used by these autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV's) plays a vital roll mission planning. This paper presents a procedure for constructing optimal controllers that limit and route information flow in a network of AUVs. Particular attention is paid to the objectives of maximizing throughput and bandwidth efficiency while minimizing power consumption and queue length. A receding horizon control approach is adopted and shown to yield piecewise continuous optimal controllers that are unique.