Study on Course Design of Cruising AUV for Docking at Deep-Sea Terminal

Underwater docking technology has gained attention as a means to extend the operating time and survey range of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs). In docking operations, the cruising AUVs cannot hover and stand by at a fixed point. Therefore, they must be able to perform a retry operation, that is, disengage and approach again. Although retrying over short distances has the advantage of saving time, it has the disadvantage of reducing the straight-line stability. In this case, the setting of the course design must be identified. This paper focused on the waypoint navigation of a cruising AUV and determines the setting of shortest course design to stabilize the AUV just before docking by numerical simulation. Moreover, this study demonstrates the procedure of the planning course design for docking of cruising AUV.