• International Journal of Ocean System Engineering
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.89-94
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• 2011

Underwater localization is a crucial capability for reliable operation of various types of underwater vehicles including submarines and underwater robots. However, sea water is almost impermeable to high-frequency electromagnetic waves, and thus absolute position fixes from Global Positioning System (GPS) are not available in the water. The use of acoustic telemetry systems such as Long Baseline (LBL) is a practical option for underwater localization. However, this telemetry network system needs to be pre-deployed and its availability cannot always be assumed. This study focuses on demonstrating the validity of terrain-based localization techniques in a GPS-denied underwater environment. Since terrain-based localization leads to a nonlinear estimation problem, nonlinear filtering methods are required to be employed. The extended Kalman filter (EKF) which is a widely used nonlinear filtering algorithm often shows limited performance under large initial uncertainty. The feasibility of using a particle filter is investigated, which can improve the performance and reliability of the terrain-based localization.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.641-648
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• 2009

Currently several kinds of sensor localization methods have been developed for terrestrial wireless sensor networks. This study, in order to extend the field to underwater environments, a localization technique is studied for UWSNs (Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks). In underwater environments, RF (Radio Frequency) signal is not suitable for underwater usage because of extremely limited propagation. Because of that reason UWSNs should be constituted with acoustic modems. But, to realize underwater application, we can borrow many design principles from ongoing research for terrestrial environments. So, in this paper we introduce the modified localization algorithm using ToA method which is based on the terrestrial research. First of all, we study the localization techniques for terrestrial environments where we investigate possible methods to underwater environment. And then the appropriate algorithm is presented in the underwater usage. Finally the proposed underwater based localization algorithm is evaluated by using computer.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.170-176
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• 2017

In this paper, we propose an underwater localization scheme through the fusion of an inertial navigation system (INS) and the received signal strength (RSS) of electromagnetic (EM) wave sensors to guarantee precise localization performance with high sampling rates. In this localization scheme, the INS predicts the pose of the unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) by dead reckoning at every step, and the RF sensors corrects the UUV position functions using the Earth-fixed reference when the UUV is located in underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSN). The localization scheme and state modeling were conducted in the extended Kalman filter framework, and UUV localization experiments were conducted in a basin environment. The scheme achieved reliable localization accuracy during long-term navigation, demonstrating the feasibility of exploiting EM wave attenuation as Earth-fixed reference sensors.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.392-397
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• 2015

An autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) can perform flexible operations even in complex underwater environments because of its autonomy. Localization is one of the key components of this autonomous navigation. Because the inertial navigation system of an AUV suffers from drift, observing fixed objects in an inertial reference system can enhance the localization performance. In this paper, we propose a method of AUV localization using visual measurements of underwater structures. A camera measurement model that emulates the camera’s observations of underwater structures is designed in a particle filtering framework. Then, the particle weight is updated based on the extracted visual information of the underwater structures. The proposed method is validated based on the results of experiments performed in a structured basin environment.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.18 no.8
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• pp.699-705
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• 2012

In this paper, an infrastructure-based localization method using underwater wireless sensor network (UWSN) is addressed. A localization using the UWSN is necessary to widen the usage of underwater applications, however it is very difficult to establish the UWSN due to the restrictions of water. In this paper, to extend the usage of UWSN at the infrastructure, we propose a sophisticated UWSN localization method using the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) of the electromagnetic waves. During the electromagnetic waves propagating in underwater, there arises a lot of attenuation according to the distance, while the attenuation shows uniformity according to the distance. Using this characteristics, the localization system in underwater infrastructure is proposed and the experimental results show the effectiveness.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.19 no.8
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• pp.667-675
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• 2013

This paper presents vision-based techniques for underwater landmark detection, map-based localization, and SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) in structured underwater environments. A variety of underwater tasks require an underwater robot to be able to successfully perform autonomous navigation, but the available sensors for accurate localization are limited. A vision sensor among the available sensors is very useful for performing short range tasks, in spite of harsh underwater conditions including low visibility, noise, and large areas of featureless topography. To overcome these problems and to a utilize vision sensor for underwater localization, we propose a novel vision-based object detection technique to be applied to MCL (Monte Carlo Localization) and EKF (Extended Kalman Filter)-based SLAM algorithms. In the image processing step, a weighted correlation coefficient-based template matching and color-based image segmentation method are proposed to improve the conventional approach. In the localization step, in order to apply the landmark detection results to MCL and EKF-SLAM, dead-reckoning information and landmark detection results are used for prediction and update phases, respectively. The performance of the proposed technique is evaluated by experiments with an underwater robot platform in an indoor water tank and the results are discussed.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.199-203
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• 2017

In this paper, we developed an underwater localization system for underwater robot docking using the electromagnetic wave attenuation model. Electromagnetic waves are generally known to be impossible to use in water environment. However, according to the conclusions of the previous studies on the attenuation characteristics in underwater, the attenuation pattern is uniform and its model was accurately proposed and verified in 3-dimensional space via the omnidirectional antenna. In this paper, a docking structure and localization sensor system are developed for a widely used cone type docking mechanism. First, we fabricated electromagnetic wave range sensor transmit modules. And a mobile sensor node is equipped with unmanned underwater vehicle(UUV)s. The mobile node senses the four different signal strength (RSS: Received Signal Strength) from fixed nodes, and the obtained RSS data are transformed to each distance information using the 3-Dimensional EM wave attenuation model. Then, the relative localization between the docking area and underwater robot can be achieved according to optimization algorithm. Finally, experimental results show the feasibility of the proposed localization system for the docking induction by comparing the errors in the actual position of the mobile node and the theoretical position through the model.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.156-162
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• 2016

For the underwater localization, acoustic sensor systems are widely used due to greater penetration properties of acoustic signals in underwater environments. On the other hand, the good penetration property causes multipath and interference effects in structured environment too. To overcome this demerit, a localization method using the attenuation of electro-magnetic(EM) waves was proposed in several literatures, in which distance estimation and 2D-localization experiments show remarkable results. However, in 3D-localization application, the estimation difficulties increase due to the nonuniform (doughnut like) radiation pattern of an omni-directional antenna related to the depth direction. For solving this problem, we added a depth sensor for improving underwater 3D-localization with the EM wave method. A micro scale pressure sensor is located in the mobile node antenna, and the depth data from the pressure sensor is calibrated by the curve fitting algorithm. We adapted the depth(z) data to 3D EM wave pattern model for the error reduction of the localization. Finally, some experiments were executed for 3D localization with the fast calculation and less errors.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.402-410
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• 2017

Acoustic based localization is essential to operate autonomous robotic systems in underwater environment where the use of sensorial data is limited. This paper proposes a localization method using artificial underwater acoustic sources. The proposed method acquires directional angles of acoustic sources using time difference of arrivals of two hydrophones. For this purpose, a probabilistic approach is used for accurate estimation of the time delay. Then, Gaussian sum filter based SLAM technique is used to localize both acoustic sources and underwater vehicle. It is performed by using bearing of acoustic sources as measurement and inertial sensors as prediction model. The proposed method can handle directional ambiguity of time difference based source localization by generating Gaussian models corresponding to possible locations of both front and back sides. Through these processes, the proposed method can provide reliable localization method for underwater vehicles without any prior information of source locations. The performance of the proposed method is verified by experimental results conducted in a real sea environment.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.107-112
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• 2013

In this paper, we discuss a 3-dimensional localization sensor node using EM waves (Electromagnetic waves) with RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator). Generally EM waves cannot be used in underwater environment, because the signal is highly attenuated by the water medium according to the distance. Although the signal quickly reduces in underwater, the reducing tendency is very clear and uniform. Hence EM waves have possibility as underwater distance sensors. The authors have verified the possibility by theory and several experiments, and developed calibration methods in case of linear and planer environment. For 3-dimensional localization in underwater, it must be known antenna's radiation pattern property in electric plane(called E-plane). In this paper, we proceed experiments to verify attenuation tendency with z axis movement, PLF (Polarization Loss Factor) and ILF (Inclination Loss Factor) with its theoretical approach.