Cooperative research in underwater robot mission-level programming methodologies

Programming autonomous vehicles to accomplish complex missions is a complicated task for which the development of control architectures is of prime importance. The goal of this paper is to describe the accomplishments of both French and American teams within a cooperative research program focused on the development of high-level control of semi-autonomous underwater vehicles. In particular, two different mission-programming methodologies are examined in the context of the requirements of a generic, reactive and complex underwater mission. The French team uses a combination of the ESTEREL synchronous programming language and the PIRRAT real-time control library to implement a methodology derived from the ORCCAD programming system. The approach taken by the American team builds a trilevel hybrid architecture using the CONTROLSHELL real-time software development environment. The details of each methodology are highlighted through the presentation of the high-level programs designed by each team using their approach to control an underwater robot to perform a multiphased underwater mission. The utility of both programming methodologies was verified through the successful completion of those missions in experimental demonstrations by the French VORTEX and American OTTER autonomous underwater vehicles.