• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.341-348
• /
• 2013

A location estimation algorithm based on the sea-surface beacon is proposed in this paper. The beacon is utilized to provide ultrasonic signals to the underwater vehicles around the beacon to estimate precise position of underwater vehicles (ROV, AUV, Diver robot), which is named as USBL (Ultra Short Baseline) system. It utilizes GPS and INS data for estimating its position and adopts DWT (Discrete Wavelet Transform) de-noising filter and UKF (Unscented KALMAN Filter) elaborating the position estimation. The beacon system aims at estimating the precise position of underwater vehicle by using USBL to receive the tracking signals. The most important one for the precise position estimation of underwater vehicle is estimating the position of the beacon system precisely. Since the beacon is on the sea-waves, the received GPS signals are noisy and unstable most of times. Therefore, the INS data (gyroscope sensor, accelerometer, magnetic compass) are obtained at the beacon on the sea-surface to compensate for the inaccuracy of the GPS data. The noises in the acceleration data from INS data are reduced by using DWT de-noising filter in this research. Finally the UKF localization system is proposed in this paper and the system performance is verified by real experiments.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.391-407
• /
• 2019

Tracking the location (position) of a surface or underwater marine vehicle is important as part of guidance and navigation. While the Global Positioning System (GPS) works well in an open sea environment but its use is limited whenever testing scaled-down models of such vehicles in the laboratory environment. This paper presents the design, development and implementation of a low energy ultrasonic augmented single beacon-based localization technique suitable for such requirements. The strategy consists of applying Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) to achieve location tracking from basic dynamic distance measurements of the moving model from a fixed beacon, while on-board motion sensor measures heading angle and velocity. Iterative application of the Extended Kalman Filter yields x and y co-ordinate positions of the moving model. Tests performed on a free-running ship model in a wave basin facility of dimension 30 m by 30 m by 3 m water depth validate the proposed model. The test results show quick convergence with an error of few centimeters in the estimated position of the ship model. The proposed technique has application in the real field scenario by replacing the ultrasonic sensor with industrial grade long range acoustic modem. As compared with the existing systems such as LBL, SBL, USBL and others localization techniques, the proposed technique can save deployment cost and also cut the cost on number of acoustic modems involved.