Integrated simulation for rapid development of autonomous underwater vehicles

The autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) integrated simulator has been designed to support complete scientific visualization of AUV vehicle performance. High-resolution 3D graphics workstations can provide real-time representations of vehicle dynamics, control system behavior, mission execution, sonar processing and object classification. Use of well-defined, user-readable mission log files as the data transfer mechanism allows consistent and repeatable simulation of all AUV operations. Examples of integrated simulation are provided using the Naval Postgraduate School AUV, an eight-foot, 387-pound untethered robot submarine designed for research in adaptive control, mission planning, mission execution, and post-mission data analysis.< >