Autonomous Navigation of an Underwater Robot in the Presence of Multiple Moving Obstacles

Abstract

Obstacle avoidance of underwater robots based on a modified virtual force field algorithm is proposed in this paper. The VFF(Virtual Force Field) algorithm, which is widely used in the field of mobile robots, is modified for application to the obstacle avoidance of underwater robots. This Modified Virtual Force Field(MVFF) algorithm using the fuzzy lgoc can be used in moving obstacles avoidance. A fuzzy algorithm is devised to handle various situations which can be faced during autonomous navigation of underwater robots. The proposed obstacle avoidance algorithm has ability to handle multiple moving obstacles. Results of simulation show that the proposed algorithm can be efficiently applied to obstacle avoidance of the underwater robots.