A coordination architecture for UUV fleets

This paper presents a modular and expandable architecture, which includes diversified functions and can be applied to heterogeneous fleets of unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), to solve the problem of decentralized formation coordination. The architecture is modular and each module is built such that it can solve a precise task using one or more functions. Three functions among them play a key role for the whole architecture: localization, faultless formation control and fault tolerance. The localization function is performed by the use of an adaptive extended Kalman filter (A-EKF) algorithm; the fault-free formation control function is based on a nonlinear decentralized model predictive control (ND-MPC) algorithm; the fault tolerance function is based on a hierarchy graph theory. The novelty of the paper lies in the use of the above mentioned functions as the core of an architecture which is expandable, decentralized and can be applied to a wide range of vehicles. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.