REACT: Real-time Entanglement-Aware Coverage Path Planning for Tethered Underwater Vehicles
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arXiv
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| _version_ | 1866908816974544896 |
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| author | Amer, Abdelhakim Mehindratta, Mohit Brodskiy, Yury Wehbe, Bilal Kayacan, Erdal |
| author_facet | Amer, Abdelhakim Mehindratta, Mohit Brodskiy, Yury Wehbe, Bilal Kayacan, Erdal |
| contents | Inspection of underwater structures with tethered underwater vehicles is often hindered by the risk of tether entanglement. We propose REACT (real-time entanglement-aware coverage path planning for tethered underwater vehicles), a framework designed to overcome this limitation. REACT comprises a computationally efficient geometry-based tether model using the signed distance field (SDF) map for accurate, real-time simulation of taut tether configurations around arbitrary structures in 3D. This model enables an efficient online replanning strategy by enforcing a maximum tether length constraint, thereby actively preventing entanglement. By integrating REACT into a coverage path planning framework, we achieve safe and entanglement-free inspection paths, previously challenging due to tether constraints. The complete REACT framework's efficacy is validated in a pipe inspection scenario, demonstrating safe navigation and full coverage inspection. Simulation results show that REACT achieves complete coverage while maintaining tether constraints and completing the total mission 20% faster than conventional planners, despite a longer inspection time due to proactive avoidance of entanglement that eliminates extensive post-mission disentanglement. Real-world experiments confirm these benefits, where REACT completes the full mission, while the baseline planner fails due to physical tether entanglement. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_10204 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | REACT: Real-time Entanglement-Aware Coverage Path Planning for Tethered Underwater Vehicles Amer, Abdelhakim Mehindratta, Mohit Brodskiy, Yury Wehbe, Bilal Kayacan, Erdal Robotics Systems and Control Inspection of underwater structures with tethered underwater vehicles is often hindered by the risk of tether entanglement. We propose REACT (real-time entanglement-aware coverage path planning for tethered underwater vehicles), a framework designed to overcome this limitation. REACT comprises a computationally efficient geometry-based tether model using the signed distance field (SDF) map for accurate, real-time simulation of taut tether configurations around arbitrary structures in 3D. This model enables an efficient online replanning strategy by enforcing a maximum tether length constraint, thereby actively preventing entanglement. By integrating REACT into a coverage path planning framework, we achieve safe and entanglement-free inspection paths, previously challenging due to tether constraints. The complete REACT framework's efficacy is validated in a pipe inspection scenario, demonstrating safe navigation and full coverage inspection. Simulation results show that REACT achieves complete coverage while maintaining tether constraints and completing the total mission 20% faster than conventional planners, despite a longer inspection time due to proactive avoidance of entanglement that eliminates extensive post-mission disentanglement. Real-world experiments confirm these benefits, where REACT completes the full mission, while the baseline planner fails due to physical tether entanglement. |
| title | REACT: Real-time Entanglement-Aware Coverage Path Planning for Tethered Underwater Vehicles |
| topic | Robotics Systems and Control |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.10204 |