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Cooperative Vehicle Target Tracking

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Springer Handbook of Ocean Engineering

Part of the book series: Springer Handbooks ((SHB))

Abstract

As autonomous ocean vehicles become more affordable and reliable, applications of multivehicle teams become more feasible. Cooperative vehicle target tracking is a promising application since in many sport, military, and biological endeavors cooperative strategies have proven themselves to be advantageous over noncooperative strategies. The sophistication of winning human team interactions indicates the challenge inherent in programming a fleet of autonomous vehicles to work cooperatively to effectively and efficiently accomplish a goal. For a multivehicle team operating in the continuous and transient ocean environment, meeting this challenge involves optimizing a high-dimensional parameter space, even more so in cases when the target has the ability to make intelligent choices to avoid being tracked. In this chapter, recent progress to construct a theoretical framework and recent applications for maritime surveillance are presented. A methodology is developed that can help bridge the gap between the top-down view starting with theoretical concepts and the bottom-up view dealing with all details of real experimentation and execution at sea.

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Abbreviations

AIS:

automatic identification system

AUV:

autonomous underwater vehicle

CA:

cellular automata

CE:

control and estimation

DEC-POMDP:

decentralized partially observable Markov decision process

HF:

high frequency

LFCTT:

low-frequency cooperative target tracking

MAS:

multiagent system

PDF:

probability density function

PGM:

probabilistic graphical model

POMDP:

partially observable Markov decision process

POSG:

partially observable stochastic games

SAT:

satellite communication

UAV:

unmanned aerial vehicle

UHF:

ultra high frequency

VHF:

very high frequency

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bundeswehr Technical Center for Ships and Naval Weapons (WTD 71), Klausdorfer Weg 2-24, 24148, Kiel, Germany

    Frank Ehlers

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  1. Frank Ehlers
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Correspondence to Frank Ehlers .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Inst. for Ocean and Systems Engineering – SeaTech, Florida Atlantic University, 101 North Beach Road, FL 33004, Dania Beach, Florida, USA

    Manhar R. Dhanak

  2. School of Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering, University of New Orleans, 2000 Lakeshore Drive, LA 70148, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

    Nikolaos I. Xiros

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Ehlers, F. (2016). Cooperative Vehicle Target Tracking. In: Dhanak, M.R., Xiros, N.I. (eds) Springer Handbook of Ocean Engineering. Springer Handbooks. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16649-0_22

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16649-0_22

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