Spatial-temporal recurrent reinforcement learning for autonomous ships

The paper proposes a spatial-temporal recurrent neural network architecture for Deep $Q$-Networks to steer an autonomous ship. The network design allows handling an arbitrary number of surrounding target ships while offering robustness to partial observability. Further, a state-of-the-art collision risk metric is proposed to enable an easier assessment of different situations by the agent. The COLREG rules of maritime traffic are explicitly considered in the design of the reward function. The final policy is validated on a custom set of newly created single-ship encounters called "Around the Clock" problems and the commonly chosen Imazu (1987) problems, which include 18 multi-ship scenarios. Additionally, the framework shows robustness when deployed simultaneously in multi-agent scenarios. The proposed network architecture is compatible with other deep reinforcement learning algorithms, including actor-critic frameworks

해양 작업 지원선의 자율 운항 및 설치 작업 지원을 위한 시뮬레이션 방법

학위논문 (박사)-- 서울대학교 대학원 : 공과대학 조선해양공학과, 2019. 2. 노명일.Autonomous ships have gained a huge amount of interest in recent years, like their counterparts on land{autonomous cars, because of their potential to significantly lower the cost of operation, attract seagoing professionals and increase transportation safety. Technologies developed for the autonomous ships have potential to notably reduce maritime accidents where 75% cases can be attributed to human error and a significant proportion of these are caused by fatigue and attention deficit. However, developing a high-level autonomous system which can operate in an unstructured and unpredictable environment is still a challenging task. When the autonomous ships are operating in the congested waterway with other manned or unmanned vessels, the collision avoidance algorithm is the crucial point in keeping the safety of both the own ship and any encountered ships. Instead of developing new traffic rules for the autonomous ships to avoid collisions with each other, autonomous ships are expected to follow the existing guidelines based on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGs). Furthermore, when using the crane on the autonomous ship to transfer and install subsea equipment to the seabed, the heave and swaying phenomenon of the subsea equipment at the end of flexible wire ropes makes its positioning at an exact position is very difficult. As a result, an Anti-Motion Control (AMC) system for the crane is necessary to ensure the successful installation operation. The autonomous ship is highly relying on the effectiveness of autonomous systems such as autonomous path following system, collision avoidance system, crane control system and so on. During the previous two decades, considerable attention has been paid to develop robust autonomous systems. However, several are facing challenges and it is worthwhile devoting much effort to this. First of all, the development and testing of the proposed control algorithms should be adapted across a variety of environmental conditions including wave, wind, and current. This is one of the challenges of this work aimed at creating an autonomous path following and collision avoidance system in the ship. Secondly, the collision avoidance system has to comply with the regulations and rules in developing an autonomous ship. Thirdly, AMC system with anti-sway abilities for a knuckle boom crane remains problems regarding its under-actuated mechanism. At last, the performance of the control system should be evaluated in advance of the operation to perform its function successfully. In particular, such performance analysis is often very costly and time-consuming, and realistic conditions are typically impossible to establish in a testing environment. Consequently, to address these issues, we proposed a simulation framework with the following scenarios, which including the autonomous navigation scenario and crane operation scenario. The research object of this study is an autonomous offshore support vessel (OSV), which provides support services to offshore oil and gas field development such as offshore drilling, pipe laying, and oil producing assets (production platforms and FPSOs) utilized in EP (Exploration Production) activities. Assume that the autonomous OSV confronts an urgent mission under the harsh environmental conditions: on the way to an imperative offshore construction site, the autonomous OSV has to avoid target ships while following a predefined path. When arriving at the construction site, it starts to install a piece of subsea equipment on the seabed. So what technologies are needed, what should be invested for ensuring the autonomous OSV could robustly kilometers from shore, and how can an autonomous OSV be made at least as safe as the conventional ship. In this dissertation, we focus on the above critical activities for answering the above questions. In the general context of the autonomous navigation and crane control problem, the objective of this dissertation is thus fivefold: • Developing a COLREGs-compliant collision avoidance system. • Building a robust path following and collision avoidance system which can handle the unknown and complicated environment. • Investigating an efficient multi-ship collision avoidance method enable it easy to extend. • Proposing a hardware-in-the-loop simulation environment for the AHC system. • Solving the anti-sway problem of the knuckle boom crane on an autonomous OSV. First of all, we propose a novel deep reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm to achieve effective and efficient capabilities of the path following and collision avoidance system. To perform and verify the proposed algorithm, we conducted simulations for an autonomous ship under unknown environmental disturbance iiito adjust its heading in real-time. A three-degree-of-freedom dynamic model of the autonomous ship was developed, and the Line-of-sight (LOS) guidance system was used to converge the autonomous ship to follow the predefined path. Then, a proximal policy optimization (PPO) algorithm was implemented on the problem. By applying the advanced deep RL method, in which the autonomous OSV learns the best behavior through repeated trials to determine a safe and economical avoidance behavior in various circumstances. The simulation results showed that the proposed algorithm has the capabilities to guarantee collision avoidance of moving encountered ships while ensuring following a predefined path. Also, the algorithm demonstrated that it could manage complex scenarios with various encountered ships in compliance with COLREGs and have the excellent adaptability to the unknown, sophisticated environment. Next, the AMC system includes Anti-Heave Control (AHC) and Anti-Sway Control (ASC), which is applied to install subsea equipment in regular and irregular for performance analysis. We used the proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control method and the sliding mode control method respectively to achieve the control objective. The simulation results show that heave and sway motion could be significantly reduced by the proposed control methods during the construction. Moreover, to evaluate the proposed control system, we have constructed the HILS environment for the AHC system, then conducted a performance analysis of it. The simulation results show the AHC system could be evaluated effectively within the HILS environment. We can conclude that the proposed or adopted methods solve the problems issued in autonomous system design.해양 작업 지원선 (Offshore Support Vessel: OSV)의 경우 극한의 환경에도 불구하고 출항하여 해상에서 작업을 수행해야 하는 경우가 있다. 이러한 위험에의 노출을 최소화하기 위해 자율 운항에 대한 요구가 증가하고 있다. 여기서의 자율 운항은 선박이 출발지에서 목적지까지 사람의 도움 없이 이동함을 의미한다. 자율 운항 방법은 경로 추종 방법과 충돌 회피 방법을 포함한다. 우선, 운항 및 작업 중 환경 하중 (바람, 파도, 조류 등)에 대한 고려를 해야 하고, 국제 해상 충돌 예방 규칙 (Convention of the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, COLREGs)에 의한 선박간의 항법 규정을 고려하여 충돌 회피 규칙을 준수해야 한다. 특히 연근해의 복잡한 해역에서는 많은 선박을 자동으로 회피할 필요가 있다. 기존의 해석적인 방법을 사용하기 위해서는 선박들에 대한 정확한 시스템 모델링이 되어야 하며, 그 과정에서 경험 (experience)에 의존하는 파라미터 튜닝이 필수적이다. 또한, 회피해야 할 선박 수가 많아질 경우 시스템 모델이 커지게 되고 계산 양과 계산 시간이 늘어나 실시간 적용이 어렵다는 단점이 있다. 또한, 경로 추종 및 충돌 회피를 포함하여 자율 운항 방법을 적용하기가 어렵다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 강화 학습 (Reinforcement Learning: RL) 기법을 이용하여 기존 해석적인 방법의 문제점을 극복할 수 있는 방법을 제안하였다. 경로를 추종하는 선박 (agent)은 외부 환경 (environment)과 상호작용하면서 학습을 진행한다. State S_0 (선박의 움직임과 관련된 각종 상태) 가지는 agent는 policy (현재 위치에서 어떤 움직임을 선택할 것인가)에 따라 action A_0 (움직일 방향) 취한다. 이에 environment는 agent의 다음 state S_1 을 계산하고, 그에 따른 보상 R_0 (해당 움직임의 적합성)을 결정하여 agent에게 전달한다. 이러한 작업을 반복하면서 보상이 최대가 되도록 policy를 학습하게 된다. 한편, 해상에서 크레인을 이용한 장비의 이동이나 설치 작업 시 위험을 줄이기 위해 크레인의 거동 제어에 대한 요구가 증가하고 있다. 특히 해상에서는 선박의 운동에 의해 크레인에 매달린 물체가 상하 동요 (heave)와 크레인을 기준으로 좌우 동요 (sway)가 발생하는데, 이러한 운동은 작업을 지연시키고, 정확한 위치에 물체를 놓지 못하게 하며, 자칫 주변 구조물과의 충돌을 야기할 수 있다. 이와 같은 동요를 최소화하는 Anti-Motion Control (AMC) 시스템은 Anti-Heave Control (AHC)과 Anti-Sway Control (ASC)을 포함한다. 본 연구에서는 해양 작업 지원선에 적합한 AMC 시스템의 설계 및 검증 방법을 연구하였다. 먼저 상하 동요를 최소화하기 위해 크레인의 와이어 길이를 능동적으로 조정하는 AHC 시스템을 설계하였다. 또한, 기존의 제어 시스템의 검증 방법은 실제 선박이나 해양 구조물에 해당 제어 시스템을 직접 설치하기 전에는 그 성능을 테스트하기가 힘들었다. 이를 해결하기 위해 본 연구에서는 Hardware-In-the-Loop Simulation (HILS) 기법을 활용하여 AHC 시스템의 검증 방법을 연구하였다. 또한, ASC 시스템을 설계할 때 제어 대상이 under-actuated 시스템이기 때문에 제어하기가 매우 어렵다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 sliding mode control 알고리즘을 이용하며 다관절 크레인 (knuckle boom crane)의 관절 (joint) 각도를 제어하여 좌우 동요를 줄일 수 있는 ASC 시스템을 설계하였다.Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Background and Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.2 Requirements for Autonomous Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 1.2.1 Path Following for Autonomous Ship . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 1.2.2 Collision Avoidance for Autonomous Ship . . . . . . . . . 5 1.2.3 Anti-Motion Control System for Autonomous Ship . . . . 6 1.3 Related Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 1.3.1 Related Work for Path Following System . . . . . . . . . 9 1.3.2 Related Work for Collision Avoidance System . . . . . . . 9 1.3.3 Related Work for Anti-Heave Control System . . . . . . . 13 1.3.4 Related Work for Anti-Sway Control System . . . . . . . 14 1.4 Configuration of Simulation Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 1.4.1 Application Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 1.4.2 Autonomous Ship Design Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 1.4.3 General Technique Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 1.5 Contributions (Originality) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Chapter 2 Theoretical Backgrounds 20 2.1 Maneuvering Model for Autonomous Ship . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 2.1.1 Kinematic Equation for Autonomous Ship . . . . . . . . . 20 2.1.2 Kinetic Equation for Autonomous Ship . . . . . . . . . . 21 2.2 Multibody Dynamics Model for Knuckle Boom Crane of Autonomous Ship. . . 25 2.2.1 Embedding Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 2.3 Control System Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 2.3.1 Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) Control . . . . . . 31 2.3.2 Sliding Mode Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 2.4 Deep Reinforcement Learning Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 2.4.1 Value Based Learning Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 2.4.2 Policy Based Learning Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 2.4.3 Actor-Critic Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 2.5 Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 2.5.1 Integrated Simulation Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Chapter 3 Path Following Method for Autonomous OSV 46 3.1 Guidance System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 3.1.1 Line-of-sight Guidance System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 3.2 Deep Reinforcement Learning for Path Following System . . . . . 50 3.2.1 Deep Reinforcement Learning Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 3.2.2 Neural Network Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 3.2.3 Training Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 3.3 Implementation and Simulation Result . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 3.3.1 Implementation for Path Following System . . . . . . . . 62 3.3.2 Simulation Result . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 3.4 Comparison Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 3.4.1 Comparison Result of PPO with PID . . . . . . . . . . . 83 3.4.2 Comparison Result of PPO with Deep Q-Network (DQN) 87 Chapter 4 Collision Avoidance Method for Autonomous OSV 89 4.1 Deep Reinforcement Learning for Collision Avoidance System . . 89 4.1.1 Deep Reinforcement Learning Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 4.1.2 Neural Network Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 4.1.3 Training Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 4.2 Implementation and Simulation Result . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 4.2.1 Implementation for Collision Avoidance System . . . . . . 95 4.2.2 Simulation Result . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 4.3 Implementation and Simulation Result for Multi-ship Collision Avoidance Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 4.3.1 Limitations of Multi-ship Collision Avoidance Method - 1 107 4.3.2 Limitations of Multi-ship Collision Avoidance Method - 2 108 4.3.3 Implementation of Multi-ship Collision Avoidance Method 110 4.3.4 Simulation Result of Multi-ship Collision Avoidance Method 118 Chapter 5 Anti-Motion Control Method for Knuckle Boom Crane 129 5.1 Configuration of HILS for Anti-Heave Control System . . . . . . 129 5.1.1 Virtual Mechanical System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 5.1.2 Virtual Sensor and Actuator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 5.1.3 Control System Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 5.1.4 Integrated Simulation Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 5.2 Implementation and Simulation Result of HILS for Anti-Heave Control System . . . . . . . . 145 5.2.1 Implementation of HILS for Anti-Heave Control System . 145 5.2.2 Simulation Result of HILS for Anti-Heave Control System 146 5.3 Validation of HILS for Anti-Heave Control System . . . . . . . . 159 5.3.1 Hardware Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 5.3.2 Comparison Result . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 5.4 Configuration of Anti-Sway Control System . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 5.4.1 Mechanical System for Knuckle Boom Crane . . . . . . . 162 5.4.2 Anti-Sway Control System Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 5.4.3 Implementation and Simulation Result of Anti-Sway Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 Chapter 6 Conclusions and Future Works 176 Bibliography 178 Chapter A Appendix 186 국문초록 188Docto

Autonomous Drone Landings on an Unmanned Marine Vehicle using Deep Reinforcement Learning

This thesis describes with the integration of an Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) and an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV, also commonly known as drone) in a single Multi-Agent System (MAS). In marine robotics, the advantage offered by a MAS consists of exploiting the key features of a single robot to compensate for the shortcomings in the other. In this way, a USV can serve as the landing platform to alleviate the need for a UAV to be airborne for long periods time, whilst the latter can increase the overall environmental awareness thanks to the possibility to cover large portions of the prevailing environment with a camera (or more than one) mounted on it. There are numerous potential applications in which this system can be used, such as deployment in search and rescue missions, water and coastal monitoring, and reconnaissance and force protection, to name but a few. The theory developed is of a general nature. The landing manoeuvre has been accomplished mainly identifying, through artificial vision techniques, a fiducial marker placed on a flat surface serving as a landing platform. The raison d'etre for the thesis was to propose a new solution for autonomous landing that relies solely on onboard sensors and with minimum or no communications between the vehicles. To this end, initial work solved the problem while using only data from the cameras mounted on the in-flight drone. In the situation in which the tracking of the marker is interrupted, the current position of the USV is estimated and integrated into the control commands. The limitations of classic control theory used in this approached suggested the need for a new solution that empowered the flexibility of intelligent methods, such as fuzzy logic or artificial neural networks. The recent achievements obtained by deep reinforcement learning (DRL) techniques in end-to-end control in playing the Atari video-games suite represented a fascinating while challenging new way to see and address the landing problem. Therefore, novel architectures were designed for approximating the action-value function of a Q-learning algorithm and used to map raw input observation to high-level navigation actions. In this way, the UAV learnt how to land from high latitude without any human supervision, using only low-resolution grey-scale images and with a level of accuracy and robustness. Both the approaches have been implemented on a simulated test-bed based on Gazebo simulator and the model of the Parrot AR-Drone. The solution based on DRL was further verified experimentally using the Parrot Bebop 2 in a series of trials. The outcomes demonstrate that both these innovative methods are both feasible and practicable, not only in an outdoor marine scenario but also in indoor ones as well

Proceedings, MSVSCC 2013

Proceedings of the 7th Annual Modeling, Simulation & Visualization Student Capstone Conference held on April 11, 2013 at VMASC in Suffolk, Virginia

Spatial planning for fisheries in the Northern Adriatic: working toward viable and sustainable fishing

none10siGiven the great overfishing of the demersal resources in the Northern Adriatic Sea (geographical sub-area [GSA] 17), along with the fishing pressure in marine habitats, evidence strongly supports the need to evaluate appropriate management approaches. Several fishing activities operate simultaneously in the area, and the need to minimize conflicts among them is also a social concern. We applied a spatially and temporally explicit fish and fisheries model to assess the impact of a suite of spatial plans suggested by practitioners that could reduce the pressure on the four demersal stocks of high commercial interest in the GSA 17 and that could promote space sharing between mutually exclusive activities. We found that excluding trawlers from some areas has lowered the effective fishing effort, resulting in some economic losses but providing benefit to the set netters. Not every simulated fishing vessel is impacted in the same way because some fishing communities experienced different economic opportunities, particularly when a 6-nautical mile buffer zone from the coast was implemented in the vicinity of important fishing grounds. Along this buffer zone, the four stocks were only slightly benefiting from the protection of the area and from fewer discards. In contrast, assuming a change in the ability of the population to disperse led to a large effect: Some fish became accessible in the coastal waters, therefore increasing the landings for rangelimited fishers, but the discard rate of fish also increased, greatly impairing the long-term biomass levels. Our evaluation, however, confirmed that no effort is displaced onto vulnerable benthic habitats and to grounds not suitable for the continued operation of fishing. We conclude that the tested spatial management is helpful, but not sufficient to ensure sustainable fishing in the area, and therefore, additional management measures should be taken. Our test platform investigates the interaction between fish and fisheries at a fine geographical scale and simulates data for varying fishing methods and from different harbor communities in a unified framework. We contribute to the development of effective science-based inputs to facilitate policy improvement and better governance while evaluating trade-offs in fisheries management and marine spatial planning.noneBastardie, Francois; Angelini, Silvia; Bolognini, Luca; Fuga, Federico; Manfredi, Chiara; Martinelli, Michela; Nielsen, J. Rasmus; Santojanni, Alberto; Scarcella, Giuseppe; Grati, FabioBastardie, Francois; Angelini, Silvia; Bolognini, Luca; Fuga, Federico; Manfredi, Chiara; Martinelli, Michela; Nielsen, J. Rasmus; Santojanni, Alberto; Scarcella, Giuseppe; Grati, Fabi

Underwater swarm robotics: Challenges and opportunities

Underwater swarm robotics today faces a series of challenges unique to its aquatic environment. This chapter explores some possible applications of underwater swarm robotics and its challenges. Those challenges include the environment itself, sensor types required, problems with communication and the difficulty in localisation. It notes the serious challenges in underwater communication is that radio communications is practically non-existent in the underwater realm. Localisation also becomes problematic due to the lack of radio waves as GPS cannot be used. It also looks at the platforms required by underwater robots and includes a possible low-cost platform. Also explored is a method of swarm robotics control known as consensus control. It shows possible solutions to the challenges and where swarm robotics may head

Cooperative Localization in Mobile Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks

Die großflächige Erkundung und Überwachung von Tiefseegebieten gewinnt mehr und mehr an Bedeutung für Industrie und Wissenschaft. Diese schwer zugänglichen Areale in der Tiefsee können nur mittels Teams unbemannter Tauchbote effizient erkundet werden. Aufgrund der hohen Kosten, war bisher ein Einsatz von mehreren autonomen Unterwasserfahrzeugen (AUV) wirtschaftlich undenkbar, wodurch AUV-Teams nur in Simulationen erforscht werden konnten. In den letzten Jahren konnte jedoch eine Entwicklung hin zu günstigeren und robusteren AUVs beobachtet werden. Somit wird der Einsatz von AUV-Teams in Zukunft zu einer realen Option. Die wachsende Nachfrage nach Technologien zur Unterwasseraufklärung und Überwachung konnte diese Entwicklung noch zusätzlich beschleunigen. Eine der größten technischen Hürden für tief tauchende AUVs ist die Unterwasserlokalisierug. Satelitengestützte Navigation ist in der Tiefe nicht möglich, da Radiowellen bereits nach wenigen Metern im Wasser stark an Intensität verlieren. Daher müssen neue Ansätze für die Unterwasserlokalisierung entwickelt werden die sich auch für Fahrzeugenverbände skalieren lassen. Der Einsatz von AUV-Teams ermöglicht nicht nur völlig neue Möglichkeiten der Kooperation, sondern erlaubt auch jedem einzelnen AUV von den Navigationsdaten der anderen Fahrzeuge im Verband zu profitieren, um die eigene Lokalisierung zu verbessern. In dieser Arbeit wird ein kooperativer Lokalisierungsansatz vorgestellt, welcher auf dem Nachrichtenaustausch durch akustische Ultra-Short Base-Line (USBL) Modems basiert. Ein akustisches Modem ermöglicht die Übertragung von Datenpaketen im Wasser, wärend ein USBL-Sensor die Richtung einer akustischen Quelle bestimmen kann. Durch die Kombination von Modem und Sensor entsteht ein wichtiges Messinstrument für die Unterwasserlokalisierung. Wenn ein Fahrzeug ein Datenpaket mit seiner eignen Position aussendet, können andere Fahrzeuge mit einem USBL-Modem diese Nachricht empfangen. In Verbindung mit der Richtungsmessung zur Quelle, können diese Daten von einem Empfangenden AUV verwendet werden, um seine eigene Positionsschatzung zu verbessern. Diese Arbeit schlägt einen Ansatz zur Fusionierung der empfangenen Nachricht mit der Richtungsmessung vor, welcher auch die jeweiligen Messungenauigkeiten berücksichtigt. Um die Messungenauigkeit des komplexen USBL-Sensors bestimmen zu können, wurde zudem ein detailliertes Sensormodell entwickelt. Zunächst wurden existierende Ansätze zur kooperativen Lokalisierung (CL) untersucht, um daraus eine Liste von erwünschten Eigenschaften für eine CL abzuleiten. Darauf aufbauend wurde der Deep-Sea Network Lokalisation (DNL) Ansatz entwickelt. Bei DNL handelt es sich um eine CL Methode, bei der die Skalierbarkeit sowie die praktische Anwendbarkeit im Fokus stehen. DNL ist als eine Zwischenschicht konzipiert, welche USBL-Modem und Navigationssystem miteinander verbindet. Es werden dabei Messwerte und Kommunikationsdaten des USBL zu einer Standortbestimmung inklusive Richtungsschätzung fusioniert und an das Navigationssystem weiter geleitet, ähnlich einem GPS-Sensor. Die Funktionalität von USBL-Modell und DNL konnten evaluiert werden anhand von Messdaten aus Seeerprobungen in der Ostsee sowie im Mittelatlantik. Die Qualität einer CL hangt häufig von vielen unterschiedlichen Faktoren ab. Die Netzwerktopologie muss genauso berücksichtig werden wie die Lokalisierungsfähigkeiten jedes einzelnen Teilnehmers. Auch das Kommunikationsverhalten der einzelnen Teilnehmer bestimmt, welche Informationen im Netzwerk vorhanden sind und hat somit einen starken Einfluss auf die CL. Um diese Einflussfaktoren zu untersuchen, wurden eine Reihe von Szenarien simuliert, in denen Kommunikationsverhalten und Netzwerktopologie für eine Gruppe von AUVs variiert wurden. In diesen Experimenten wurden die AUVs durch ein Oberflächenfahrzeug unterstützt, welches seine geo-referenzierte Position über DNL an die getauchten Fahrzeuge weiter leitete. Anhand der untersuchten Topologie können die Experimente eingeteilt werden in Single-Hop und Multi-Hop. Single-Hop bedeutet, dass jedes AUV sich in der Sendereichweite des Oberflächenfahrzeugs befindet und dessen Positionsdaten auf direktem Wege erhält. Wie die Ergebnisse der Single-Hop Experimente zeigen, kann der Lokalisierungsfehler der AUVs eingegrenzt werden, wenn man DNL verwendet. Dabei korreliert der Lokalisierungsfehler mit der kombinierten Ungenauigkeit von USBL-Messung und Oberflächenfahrzeugposition. Bei den Multi-Hop Experimenten wurde die Topologie so geändert, dass sich nur eines der AUVs in direkter Sendereichweite des Oberflächenfahrzeugs befindet. Dieses AUV verbessert seine Position mit den empfangen Daten des Oberflächenfahrzeugs und sendet wiederum seine verbesserte Position an die anderen AUVs. Auch hier konnte gezeigt werden, dass sich der Lokalisierungfehler der Gruppe mit DNL einschränken lässt. Ändert man nun das Schema der Kommunikation so, dass alle AUVs zyklisch ihre Position senden, zeigte sich eine Verschlechterung der Lokalisierungsqualität der Gruppe. Dieses unerwartet Ergebnis konnte auf einen Teil des DNL-Algorithmus zurück geführt werden. Da die verwendete USBL-Klasse nur die Richtung eines Signals misst, nicht jedoch die Entfernung zum Sender, wird in der DNL-Schicht eine Entfernungsschatzung vorgenommen. Wenn die Kommunikation nicht streng unidirektional ist, entsteht eine Ruckkopplungsschleife, was zu fehlerhaften Entfernungsschatzungen führt. Im letzten Experiment wird gezeigt wie sich dieses Problem vermeiden lasst, mithilfe einer relativ neue USBL-Klasse, die sowohl Richtung als auch Entfernung zum Sender misst. Die zwei wesentlichen Beiträge dieser Arbeit sind das USBL-Model zum einen und zum Anderen, der neue kooperative Lokalisierungsansatz DNL. Mithilfe des Sensormodels lassen sich nicht nur Messabweichungen einer USBL-Messung bestimmen, es kann auch dazu genutzt werden, einige Fehlereinflüsse zu korrigieren. Mit DNL wurde eine skalierbare CL-Methode entwickelt, die sich gut für den den Einsatz bei mobilen Unterwassersensornetzwerken eignet. Durch das Konzept als Zwischenschicht, lasst sich DNL einfach in bestehende Navigationslösungen integrieren, um die Langzeitstabilität der Navigation für große Verbände von tiefgetauchten Fahrzeugen zu gewährleisten. Sowohl USBL-Model als auch DNL sind dabei so ressourcenschonend, dass sie auf dem Computer eines Standard USBL laufen können, ohne die ursprüngliche Funktionalität einzuschränken, was den praktischen Einsatz zusätzlich vereinfacht