Obstacle Avoidance System in Underwater Glider

Obstacle avoidance system in an underwater glider is important for autonomous vehicle. Path planning is one of the main part of an obstacle avoidance system. There are a number of path planning algorithm present for ground robots. Different path planning algorithm have different working mechanism and required information. Thus, the performance and efficiency of each algorithm will be different depending on the environment and type of obstacles. While Bug algorithm is had been used in underwater vehicles, A* algorithm are more commonly used in ground robots. It is unknown how would A* algorithm perform compare to Bug algorithm for underwater glider. This thesis aims to assess the efficiency between two algorithm of A* algorithm and Bug Algorithm. The two path planning algorithm will be simulated in Matlab with random generated point obstacles between starting point and ending point. It is found that the A* algorithm have better path cost but requires higher computational power. Bug algorithm are the better choice for obstacle avoidance of underwater glider for shorter computational time and reasonable path cost between the two.