Research on Networked Communication in Multi-AUV Cluster Systems

With the continuous advancement of Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) technology, the capabilities of a single AUV are increasingly limited, making it difficult to meet demands of comprehensive mission execution. To address this challenge, this study adaptively modified three heavy-duty AUV to construct an autonomous underwater cluster system. A multidisciplinary optimization approach was employed to refine the design of the modified AUV platforms. By analysing the characteristics of the acoustic channel, Evologics acoustic modems were selected, and the communication system was subsequently optimized. Finally, lake trials were conducted to validate the networked communication functionality of the multi-AUV cluster system. The experimental results demonstrate that the system can effectively track the navigation trajectories of each AUV, confirming the correctness and effectiveness of the networked communication functions and protocols.