Underwater navigation system based on an inertial sensor and a Doppler velocity log using indirect feedback Kalman filter

Abstract

This paper presents an underwater navigation system for underwater vehicles. The navigation system consists of an inertial measurement unit (IMU) and a Doppler velocity log (DVL) accompanying magnetic compass and depth sensor. A navigational system model is derived to include the scale effect of the DVL and bias errors of the inertial sensors. Indirect feedback Kalman filter is used in this paper, where the measurement equation is composed of the navigational state errors and system parameters. This paper demonstrates the effectiveness of DVL-aided inertial navigation system through simulation and experiments. The tracking error of the navigation system is less than 1.0m for 10 minutes run from rotating arm test. Copyright ？ 2004 by The International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers.