Tracking Coherent Structures and Source Localization in Geophysical Flows

There has been a steady increase in the deployment of autonomous underwater and surface vehicles for applications such as ocean monitoring, tracking of marine processes, and forecasting contaminant transport. The underwater environment poses unique challenges since robots must operate in a communication and localization-limited environment where their dynamics are tightly coupled with the environmental dynamics. This work presents current efforts in understanding the impact of geophysical fluid dynamics on underwater vehicle control and autonomy. The focus of the talk is on the use of collaborative vehicles to track Lagrangian coherent structures and to localize contaminant spills.