A novel approach to obstacle avoidance for an I-AUV: Preliminary Simulation Results

Abstract

This paper presents a novel approach to obstacle avoidance approach for an I-AUV in a framework of setbased task-priority kinematic control algorithm. The approach is divided into two modes: Mode (1) navigation and inspection and Mode (2) intervention. For navigation we fully wrap the I-AUV with two safety spheres at the vehicle and one at the arm. For intervention we use more safety spheres with smaller sizes to fully wrap the I-AUV to allow more precise movements of the I-AUV near the intervention areas.The novel approach was implemented and simulated with the 8-DOF IAUV GIRONA500 in a scenario for inspection and maintenance (valve turning) of a BOP (blowout preventer) structure used in oil and gas industry. The BOP structure was represented by an octomap and each occupied cell of the octomap was considered as an obstacle in our model