Developing a navigation, guidance and obstacle avoidance algorithm for an Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) by algorithms fusion

Many USVs are equipped with navigation, guidance and control (NGC) algorithms due to human errors that is present in manual navigation of surface vehicles. The Morvarid, a catamaran shaped boat is designed and developed for plotting hydrography map of harbours. To control it autonomously, a fusion algorithm based on EKF, search ball and potential field concept is developed. Some main parameters of dynamic model is derived based on experimental tests and the algorithm is evaluated using hardware-in-the-loop concept. The obstacle avoidance algorithm is assessed for different obstacles in size and position. It is concluded that although the developed algorithm is robust and precise even in the presence of environmental disturbances, however installing powerful thrusters would boost maneuverability more than that is.