Patent ID: 11958579
Assignee: SCHLUMBERGER TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION
Field: Transport (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  G | IPC B  G

Claim 0:
1. A method for performing an inspection of an underwater environment comprising:
executing an autonomous exploration, in whole or in part, by an autonomous underwater vehicle (“AUV”);
performing an inspection of an underwater environment using the AUV;
constructing, by a processor, one or more candidate paths;
acquiring, by the processor, real-time sensor data during the inspection of the underwater environment;
applying, by the processor, an active simultaneous localization and mapping (“SLAM”) algorithm during the inspection,
wherein applying includes estimating one or more virtual landmarks based upon, at least in part, at least one past measurement and a current estimate of AUV activity, and
wherein applying includes applying an Expectation-Maximization exploration algorithm with a utility function explicitly addressing a map accuracy by identifying and periodically re-observing features in the underwater environment for navigating a previously identified virtual landmark of the estimated one or more virtual landmarks;

evaluating, by the processor, a localization error of the one or more virtual landmarks resulting from the one or more candidate paths; and
determining, by the processor, a best path based on the localization error and a map information gain represented by the utility function.