[Paper Review] Autonomous Reactive Mission Scheduling and Task-Path Planning Architecture for Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

Somaiyeh Mahmoud Zadeh|arXiv (Cornell University)|Jun 13, 2017

Underwater Vehicles and Communication Systems4 references5 citations

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel reactive mission scheduling and task-path planning architecture for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) that enables real-time decision-making under dynamic, uncertain conditions. By integrating a hierarchical control framework with top-level task prioritization and bottom-up local motion planning, the system autonomously manages resource constraints, adapts to environmental disturbances like water currents, and ensures on-time task completion in complex, waypoint-mapped operation zones.

ABSTRACT

An Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) should carry out complex tasks in a limited time interval. Since existing AUVs have limited battery capacity and restricted endurance, they should autonomously manage mission time and the resources to perform effective persistent deployment in longer missions. Task assignment requires making decisions subject to resource constraints, while tasks are assigned with costs and/or values that are budgeted in advance. Tasks are distributed in a particular operation zone and mapped by a waypoint covered network. Thus, design an efficient routing-task priority assign framework considering vehicle's availabilities and properties is essential for increasing mission productivity and on-time mission completion. This depends strongly on the order and priority of the tasks that are located between node-like waypoints in an operation network. On the other hand, autonomous operation of AUVs in an unfamiliar dynamic underwater and performing quick response to sudden environmental changes is a complicated process. Water current instabilities can deflect the vehicle to an undesired direction and perturb AUVs safety. The vehicle's robustness to strong environmental variations is extremely crucial for its safe and optimum operations in an uncertain and dynamic environment. To this end, the AUV needs to have a general overview of the environment in top level to perform an autonomous action selection (task selection) and a lower level local motion planner to operate successfully in dealing with continuously changing situations. This research deals with developing a novel reactive control architecture to provide a higher level of decision autonomy for the AUV operation that enables a single vehicle to accomplish multiple tasks in a single mission in the face of periodic disturbances in a turbulent and highly uncertain environment.

Motivation & Objective

• Address the challenge of enabling persistent, long-duration AUV operations under limited battery and resource constraints.
• Develop a decision-making framework that dynamically assigns task priorities based on costs, values, and vehicle availability.
• Ensure robustness against periodic environmental disturbances such as water current instabilities.
• Integrate high-level mission scheduling with low-level local motion planning for real-time adaptability.
• Enable autonomous, on-the-fly re-planning in response to sudden environmental changes during mission execution.

Proposed method

• Proposes a hierarchical control architecture with a top-level decision module for mission scheduling and task prioritization.
• Uses a waypoint-covered network to spatially map tasks and define operation zones for structured planning.
• Employs a reactive control mechanism that continuously monitors environmental conditions and vehicle state.
• Integrates local motion planners to handle real-time obstacle avoidance and trajectory tracking under dynamic disturbances.
• Applies cost-value budgeting to prioritize tasks based on mission objectives and resource availability.
• Enables online re-planning by dynamically adjusting task sequences and paths in response to environmental changes and vehicle constraints.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 How can an AUV autonomously prioritize and re-schedule tasks in response to dynamic environmental changes during a mission?
• RQ2 What architectural framework enables real-time adaptation to periodic disturbances such as water currents while maintaining mission objectives?
• RQ3 How can task-path planning be optimized under strict resource and time constraints in complex underwater environments?
• RQ4 What mechanisms ensure robustness and safety when operating in uncertain, highly dynamic underwater conditions?
• RQ5 How can a single AUV achieve persistent mission execution with high productivity and on-time task completion?

Key findings

• The proposed architecture enables autonomous, reactive mission scheduling and path planning under dynamic and uncertain underwater conditions.
• The system successfully maintains mission productivity and on-time task completion despite periodic environmental disturbances.
• The integration of high-level task prioritization with low-level motion control ensures robustness and adaptability in real-time operations.
• The waypoint-mapped network structure enhances spatial organization and planning efficiency in complex mission zones.
• The architecture supports persistent deployment by dynamically managing resource constraints and re-planning in response to changing conditions.
• The framework demonstrates effective adaptation to water current instabilities, reducing deviation and improving mission safety and reliability.