System and method for autonomous exploration for mapping underwater environments

A system for performing an inspection of an underwater environment comprising:

• an autonomous underwater vehicle (“AUV”) configured to execute an autonomous exploration, in whole or in part, and to perform an inspection of an underwater environment;
• one or more sensors associated with the AUV configured to acquire real-time sensor data during the inspection of the underwater environment;
• and
• at least one processor associated with the AUV configured to:
• construct one or more candidate paths;
• apply 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;
• evaluate a localization error of the one or more virtual landmarks resulting from the one or more candidate paths;
• and
• determine a best path based on the localization error and a map information gain represented by the utility function.