Three-Dimensional Underwater Target Tracking With Acoustic Sensor Networks

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Using traditional sonar arrays may be difficult and impractical in some mission-critical scenarios, because they should be mounted on or towed by a ship or a submersible. Alternatively, underwater acoustic sensor networks (UW-ASNs) offer a promising solution approach. In this paper, a target-tracking algorithm for UW-ASNs, i.e., 3-D underwater target tracking (3DUT), is presented. The objective of 3DUT is to collaboratively accomplish accurate tracking of underwater targets with minimum energy expenditure. Based on the time of arrival of the echoes from the target after transmitting acoustic pulses from the sensors, the ranges of the nodes to the target are determined, and trilateration is used to obtain the location of the target. The location and the calculated velocity of the target are then exploited to achieve tracking. To realize energy-effective target tracking, 3DUT incorporates a new target-movement-based duty-cycle mechanism. To avoid rapid depletion of the energy resources of boundary nodes due to continuous surveillance, 3DUT employs an adaptive procedure to find, designate, and activate new boundary nodes. Performance evaluation shows that 3DUT is a promising alternative to the traditional sonar-based target-tracking approaches, particularly for on-demand surveillance applications.