Control of motion of the autonomous underwater vehicle at trajectory survey of the oceanic physical fields

Consideration was given to the control of motion of the autonomous underwater vehicle performing automatic measurements and mapping of the oceanic physical fields. In the general case, it is required to set up a control maintaining motion along the field isolines relying on the trajectory measurements of the level and field gradient components and identification and contouring of the anomalies by the characteristic points and generalized reference points. A practical example based on the experience of bathymetrical and hydrophysical measurements in the Arctic region using an autonomous underwater vehicle was discussed.