A tree-based distributed method for cooperative flow field estimation

This paper focus on a distributed method for three-dimensional flow field estimation using multiple autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). In this method, direct measurements of local flow velocity are not required and cooperation between AUVs is considered. In this paper, the flow field estimation is formulated as an inverse problem that solves a system of nonlinear equations and we propose a tree-based distributed algorithm to solve the above equations, in which we only require the communication network among AUVs to be connected. The tree structure allows for passage of solution estimates within the network, and through dispersion and pooling stages of the algorithm, the flow field parameters are finally estimated. The convergence of the distributed algorithm is strictly proved. Finally, simulations in simulated and real flow datasets are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed distributed method.