Real-time terrain based localization for underwater vehicles

摘要

Real-time accurate localization is essential for in many underwater vehicle applications. In particular, close-range seafloor observation requires precise positioning in relation to bottom structures or to coordinates on a map. Thid paper proposes a real-time terrain based localization method that reahzes robust postioning that does not requrre any artificial landmarks. The method stochasucally determines vehicle's positron relative to the map using the Particle Filter method, based on an inertial navtgation system (INS) and a profiling sonar mounted on the vehicle. The reference bathymetric map is constructed a prior, either by the vehicle itself or by other platformg. The proposed method is implemented on the hovering type AUV TUNA-SAND and sea trials were carried out. We succeeded in the real-time locahzation and verified the performance of the proposed method.