A fast way of single-beacon localization for AUVs

Abstract

With the sharp decrease of land-based resources, ocean resources have become more important to guarantee the sustainable development for human than ever. In recent years, the rapid progress of ocean technology, especially in deep-sea AUV(Autonomous Underwater Vehicle), has made the depth of exploration and exploitation of ocean resources deeper and deeper. Due to there is no DVL(Doppler Velocity Log) product can work in the water depth of 10000 m, the INS(Inertial Navigation System) cannot work well. Thus, we supply a pure geometric Single-Beacon localization algorithm for our full depth ocean AUV. The range between AUV and one calibrated beacon together with heading are used to estimate the location of AUV. It has less latency than USBL(Ultra Short Base-Line) in the deep sea. Comparing with the LBL(Long Base-Line), less beacons and initialization time are required in this system. It's a simple and yet cost efficient localization mode for our full ocean depth AUV.