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Description:
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The proposed project is the simulation of a system to search for air vehicles which
have splashed -down in the ocean . The system comprises a group of 10+ autonomous
underwater vehicles , which cooperate in order to locate the aircraft . The search algorithm
used in this system is based on a quadratic Newton method and was developed
at Sandia National Laboratories . The method has already been successfully applied
to several two dimensional problems at Sandia .
The original 2D algorithm was converted to 3D and tested for robustness in the
presence of sensor error , position error and navigational error . Treating the robots as
point masses , the system was found to be robust for all such errors .
Several real -life adaptations were necessary . A round -robin communication strategy
was implemented on the system to properly simulate the dissemination of information
throughout the group . Time to convergence is delayed but the system still
functioned adequately .
Once simulations for the point masses had been exhausted , the dynamics of the
robots were included . The robot equations of motion were described using Kane's
equations . Path -planning was investigated using optimal control methods . The Variational
Calculus approach was attempted using a line search tool "fsolve" found in
Matlab and a Genetic Algorithm . A dynamic programming technique was also investigated using a method recently developed by Sandia National Laboratories . The Dynamic
Programming with Interior Points (DPIP ) method was a very effcient method
for path planning and performed well in the presence of system constraints .
Finally all components of the system were integrated . The motion of the robot
exactly matched the motion of the particles , even when subjected to the same robustness
tests carried out on the point masses . This thesis provides exciting developments
for all types of cooperative projects . |