PSO-based Optimal Formation of Multiple Biomimetic Underwater Vehicles

This paper aims to investigate optimal formation solutions of multiple biomimetic underwater vehicles (BUVs). The BUV is propelled by undulatory fins on both sides, and can perform various locomotion patterns, especially turning in situ and diving vertically. Firstly, the optimal formation problem is formulated, followed by theoretical analysis of a special case of optimal line formation. Then, a solution is proposed from the perspective of evolutionary computation. In particularly, the coordinates and the slope of the desired line formation, together with the pairings between initial positions and target positions, are obtained based on particle swarm optimization. Furthermore, we demonstrate the validity of this method by comparing the simulation results with the results of theoretical analysis. Finally, simulations results of multiple BUVs verify the feasibility of the proposed optimal formation methods.