A review of guidance laws applicable to unmanned underwater vehicles

The main problem in bringing autonomy to any vehicle lies in the design of a suitable guidance law. For truly autonomous operation, the vehicle needs to have a reliable Navigation, Guidance and Control (NGC) system of which the guidance system is the key element that generates suitable trajectories to be followed. In this review paper, various guidance laws found in the literature and their relevance to autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are discussed. Since existing guidance laws for underwater vehicles have emulated from tactical airborne missile systems, a number of approaches for the missile guidance systems are considered. Finally, potential guidance strategies for AUVs are proposed.