MUV LAB

Research

GUIDANCE-AND-CONTROL-CENTERED MARINE AUTONOMY.

MUV Lab develops guidance, control, simulation, and autonomy technologies for unmanned underwater and surface vehicles operating under uncertainty, actuator constraints, and communication limitations.

Research Architecture

From Mission Objectives to Validated Autonomy Algorithms.

MUV Lab studies the complete autonomy pipeline: mission definition, world modeling, 3D guidance generation, nonlinear control, vehicle dynamics, cooperative operation, and simulation-based validation for unmanned underwater and surface vehicles.

System-Level View

Marine Autonomy Research Architecture

Mission → World Model → Guidance → Control → Vehicle Dynamics → Validation

Marine autonomy research architecture concept diagram
01

Mission

Mission region, route plan, operational constraints, and vehicle-level tasks.

02

World Model

Sensor fusion, state estimation, bathymetry, environment, and uncertainty.

03

Guidance

3D reference path, waypoints, heading/pitch commands, and formation references.

04

Control

Tracking, allocation, saturation handling, robustness, and disturbance rejection.

05

Dynamics

UUV / USV dynamics, 6-DOF motion, actuators, hydrodynamics, and disturbances.

06

Validation

Simulation, mission replay, trajectory metrics, safety checks, and performance evaluation.

Core Research Tracks

Research Areas Connected as One Autonomy System.

01 / Mission Autonomy

Marine Autonomy and Mission Guidance

Mission-level autonomy for unmanned maritime systems, including path planning, path following, waypoint management, mission sequencing, and autonomous operation in underwater and surface environments.

UUV / USVMission autonomyPath planningWaypoint guidance
Mission autonomy schematic showing mission area, planned route, reference route, relay link, keep-out area, and UUV tasks

02 / 3D Guidance and Control

Nonlinear 3D Guidance and Control

Nonlinear guidance and control algorithms for marine vehicles with spatial path-following objectives, underactuated dynamics, actuator limits, model uncertainty, and environmental disturbances.

  • 3D path-following guidance and nearest-point projection
  • Cross-track error regulation with heading and pitch command generation
  • Vehicle-level feedback control under actuator and mission constraints
  • Robust nonlinear and Lyapunov-based controller design
Three-dimensional UUV and USV guidance and control concept

03 / Cooperative Operation

Cooperative and Swarm Operation

Cooperative operation of multiple unmanned maritime vehicles under realistic underwater communication constraints, including low-rate acoustic links, packet delay, packet dropout, stale-packet rejection, and predictor-based coordination.

  • Formation guidance and cooperative search geometry
  • Low-rate underwater communication and sample-and-hold exchange
  • Delay, dropout, stale-packet rejection, and freshness checks
  • Mission-level operation of multiple UUVs with surface relay support
Cooperative UUV swarm operation under communication constraints

04 / Simulation and Validation

Simulation, Digital Twin, and Validation

Simulation and validation connect theory, software, and mission operation. We develop simulation environments that combine 6-DOF vehicle dynamics, actuator models, sensor-fusion scenarios, ocean-current effects, communication constraints, autonomy algorithms, and mission-level performance evaluation.

6-DOF dynamicsIntegrated simulatorSensor fusionMission validation
Integrated simulator and digital twin concept for marine autonomy

05 / Control Theory

Control Theory for Autonomous Systems

The theoretical foundation of MUV Lab includes nonlinear control, sampled-data control, fuzzy/LPV/LMI systems, input saturation, residual compensation, Lyapunov methods, robust control, and data-driven control.

Control theory system map connecting methods, system modeling, design, and validation

Technical Stack

Methods and Implementation Layers.

Guidance

3D path following · waypoint guidance · formation reference generation · mission-oriented guidance

Control

Nonlinear control · robust control · sliding-mode control · saturation handling · control allocation

Cooperation

Formation control · low-rate communication · packet delay · packet dropout · distributed coordination

Simulation

6-DOF vehicle dynamics · hydrodynamic models · digital twin · mission-level validation

Autonomy Software

MATLAB / Simulink · Python · C/C++ · scenario simulation · algorithm implementation