Acoustic Communication and Localization in AUV Cooperative Surveys

The experimental results in acoustic communication and localization obtained with the “Typhoon” Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) in the CommsNet13 field trial are presented. The “Typhoon”s are a set of three AUVs developed by the Authors within the framework of the “Thesaurus” project, funded by the Tuscany Region, aiming at developing techniques for systematic cooperative autonomous exploration of marine archaeological areas by AUVs. The CommsNet13 experiment, which took place in September 2013 in the La Spezia Gulf, North Tyrrhenian Sea, was organized and scientifically coordinated by the NATO S&T Org. Ctr. for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE); it included among its objectives the evaluation of on-board acoustic Ultra-Short Base Line (USBL) systems for navigation and localization of AUVs.