Cooperative Coverage Path Planning for AUVs in Integrated Underwater Acoustic Communication and Detection Networks

In this paper, we propose the cooperative coverage path planning (CPP) scheme for AUVs in integrated underwater acoustic communication and detection networks (UCDNs) to explore the unknown oceanic environment. Firstly, we design a virtual force-based task allocation strategy to allocate the coverage area for multiple AUVs. In addition, to provide the AUV with an adaptive and flexible path planning capability, we design a complete coverage path planning algorithm based on Q-learning (Q-CPP-C) in UCDNs with short path lengths and obstacle avoidance. Finally, the task is reallocated based on the residual energy of AUVs for the multi-cycle continuous operation. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed CPP scheme outperforms the baseline in terms of energy consumption and time consumption.