Simulation-Based Evaluation of Multi-USV Deployment Strategies for Minehunting Missions

Mine warfare remains a persistent threat to maritime security, making rapid sweeping of suspected areas critical. Deploying multiple Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) trades mission duration against cost, vehicle availability, and logistical complexity. This work evaluates multi-USV deployment for minehunting in MOOS-IvP simulation, using static rectangular decomposition in which each USV covers an independent sector along a boustrophedon path with side-scan sonar. A 570 × 700 m scenario in Guanabara Bay was covered by one, two, and three USVs. Two vehicles reduced the makespan by 43.5% and three by 60.6%, with speed-ups of 1.77 and 2.54 and efficiencies of 0.89 and 0.85. The efficiency loss is attributed to the transit leg and to roughly 20 s per 180◦ turn. Because aggregate vehicle-time grows with fleet size, the results are presented as a resource trade-off rather than unbounded scalability.