A proposed technique for source localization using an autonomous underwater vehicle

Abstract

It has been of recent interest to use autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) with towed arrays for source localization in ocean acoustic waveguides with uncertain environmental parameters. However, AUVs cannot implement source localization techniques designed to be robust against environmental mismatch because such techniques require more computational power than is typically available on an AUV. To address this issue, a technique is proposed that increases robustness to environmental mismatch by utilizing computational resources available before the measurement of the acoustic field is made (i.e., computational resources on the ship from which the AUV is launched). This is done by using a numerical ocean acoustic model to analyze how uncertainty in environmental parameters affects the acoustic pressure levels at the hydrophones of the array. The results of this analysis can then be stored on the AUV’s computer and used by the source localization algorithm. The relationship between the proposed technique and matched mode processing is discussed.