Autonomous vessels are used all the time for long and boring surveys. How they are executed however is very different depending on the environment and vessel type. What is regarded as “good” behavior while cornering, line-tracking, loitering, etc? How does a typical course look like (using ArduPilot) overlaying a grid pattern? How well does the waypoint bhv work when the hit radius’s start overlapping each other if the grid lines are close together?
Any real-world experiences, stories and tips are welcome.
In my experience, once the vehicle is well tuned an AP vehicle tracks the lines much better than a human can. Here’s my blog post of my DeSET mapping boat although I didn’t go into its accuracy it stuck to the lines very closely.
We’ve mostly re-written the navigation controllers since then but performance should be the same (or better I think) but in any case the vehicle will slow down a lot in corners if the lines are very close together (e.g. less than the vehicle’s turning radius). Also S-Curve navigation has a limitation that it must always be able to stop by the waypoint after the current waypoint so waypoints shouldn’t be placed too close together if possible.