**7. Computer simulations and sea trials**

The proposed path-planning method can be tailored to a specific vehicle or operational domain by modifying the performance index *J* to incorporate vehicle or actuator dynamics (feasibility constraints) and mission objectives such as OA or underwater rendezvous. This section presents simulated and in-water experimental results for four different applications which use the proposed trajectory optimization framework for UMV guidance: i) underwater docking of a UUV with a mobile underwater recovery system (MURS); ii) optimal exploitation of a terrain-relative feature map to improve UUV self-localization accuracy; iii) 2D or 3D OA in cluttered environments; and iv) specific USV implementations for sonar-based OA in riverine operations.
