Abstract
This paper reports the development and experimental evaluation of a novel navigation system for underwater vehicles that employs Doppler sonar, synchronous clocks, and acoustic modems to achieve simultaneous acoustic communication and navigation. The system reported herein, which is employed to renavigate the vehicle in post-processing, forms the basis for a vehicle-based real-time navigation system. Existing high-precision absolute navigation techniques for underwater vehicles are impractical over long length scales and lack scalability for simultaneously navigating multiple vehicles. The navigation method reported in this paper relies on a single moving reference beacon, eliminating the requirement for the underwater vehicle to remain in a bounded navigable area. The use of underwater modems and synchronous clocks enables range measurements based on one-way time-of-flight information from acoustic data packet broadcasts. The acoustic data packets are broadcast from the single, moving reference beacon and can be received simultaneously by multiple vehicles within acoustic range. We report experimental results from the first deep-water evaluation of this method using data collected from an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) survey carried out in 4000 m of water on the southern Mid-Atlantic Ridge. We report a comparative experimental evaluation of the navigation fixes provided by the proposed synchronous acoustic navigation system in comparison to navigation fixes obtained by an independent conventional long baseline acoustic navigation system.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.