Development of Underwater Positioning System for Autonomous Navigation of Underwater Vehicles

Abstract

Acoustic signal is one of the most essential sensorial data for underwater localization. Unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) should perform self-localization to perform underwater tasks. For this purpose, this paper presents development ofunderwater positioning system based using underwater acoustic modems. The communication transducer of acoustic modem provides range information. Furthermore, by attaching additional hydrophones, the developed system provides bearing information of acoustic source. Underwater localization is achieved by performing EKF SLAM by fusing inertial sensors and acoustic measurement. The developed system and the proposed localization method is demonstrated by experiments conducted in an inland water environment