SUMMARY

Cooperative control enables combinations of sensor data from multiple autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), so that multiple AUVs can perform smarter behavior than a single AUV does. In addition, in some situations, a human-driven vehicle and a group of AUVs need to collaborate and preform formation behaviors. However, the dynamics of an AUV are nonlinear and coupled, which results in complexities and difficulties in analyzing formation behaviors of multi-AUV systems and human-AUV systems. The objective of the research addressed in this dissertation is to investigate the collective dynamics and control of a system comprised by a human-driven vehicle and a group of AUVs. To conduct the investigation, a mathematical motion model of an AUV is needed. A six-degree-of-freedom (6DOF) model will be reviewed and a method to identify all parameters in the model will be proposed, based on computational fluid dynamics calculations. Based upon this model, the collective dynamics of multiple AUVs will be studied, and a method will be proposed to achieve orientation control for each AUV and formation control for the multi-AUV system. The results will be extended to a human-AUV system, so that a human-driven vehicle and a group of AUVs will form a desired formation in order to complete a mission together. For the post-mission stage, an AUV survey data analysis method will be proposed and applied to the analysis for AUV measurements from our field experiment carried out in Grand Isle, Louisiana, 2011, where AUVs were used to survey a lagoon, acquire bathymetric data, and measure the concentration of reminiscent crude oil in water of the lagoon after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, 2010.