Autonomous underwater vehicle collision avoidance for under-ice exploration

Abstract

On 22 August 2004 the Autosub-2 autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) was on its return leg of a 144 km, 24 h under-ice mission in the Arctic sea over the Northwind Shoal off the northeast Greenland coast when it found its path blocked by a deep ice keel that had drifted across its planned mission route. After three attempts, the Autosub found a way around the keel and continued on its way to rendezvous with its mother ship. This paper reports the development, testing, and operation of collision and obstacle avoidance techniques used in the Arctic and Antarctic under-ice expeditions of the Autosub-2 AUV.