Design and Experimental Validation of a USBL Underwater Acoustic Positioning System

Abstract

This paper presents the steps for developing a low-cost POrtableNavigation Tool for Underwater Scenarios (PONTUS) to be used as a localization device for subsea targets. PONTUS consists of an integrated ultra-short baseline acoustic positioning system aided by an inertial navigation system. Built on a practical design, it can be mounted on an underwater robotic vehicle or be operated by a scuba diver. It also features a graphical user interface that provides information on the tracking of the designated target, in addition to some details on the physical properties inside PONTUS. A full disclosure of the architecture of the tool is first presented, followed by thorough technical descriptions of the hardware components ensemble and the software development process. A series of experiments was carried out to validate the developed prototype, and the results are presented herein, which allow assessing its overall performance.

An Improved PSO Algorithm for Direction Finding with Tetrahedral-based USBL System

“…The ultra-short baseline (USBL) positioning system is a commonly used underwater acoustic positioning system, which is attributed to its low price, easy to install and operate and having a certain accuracy. The core problem of USBL system design is to create a reliable system that can accurately determine the position of underwater objects relative to the USBL system under real ocean conditions [1][2][3]. The USBL system calculates the distance and bearing angle of the target by measuring the Time-of-Arrival (TOA) and Time-Difference-of-Arrival (TDOA) of the acoustic signal propagation.…”

“…The TDOA based Direction-of-Arrival (DOA) estimator performs data processing in the time domain. The azimuth angle and elevation angle of the target are calculated directly from the estimated TDOA and do not need the time-consuming 2-D search over the array manifold as the beamformer does, therefore, TDOA technology is more efficient at calculating load [2]. Currently, the Least Squares (LS) algorithm is the most important method of DOA estimation based on TDOA [13], however, the LS algorithm can achieve the ideal performance only when the array is geometrically symmetric.…”

MSIS Image Postioning in Port Areas with the Aid of Comparative Navigation Methods

“…A number of underwater positioning systems are being widely used now, but their high cost and time consuming operation of setting them up make the use of these systems unreasonable for the abovementioned tasks. The issues of underwater positioning are discussed in [4][5][6], among other sources.…”

Side-Scan Sonar Image Mosaic Using Couple Feature Points with Constraint of Track Line Positions

“…During the surveying using SSS, the track line positions can be accurately obtained through Short Base Line (SBL) or Ultra Short Base Line (USBL) measurement [10,11]. However, these instruments are rarely installed in most towfishes because of high cost.…”

“…After the coarsely mosaicking process, a large-scale seabed image is formed and the spatial location of the mosaicked image is confirmed. However, this mosaicked image is affected heavily by the inaccurate image coordinates caused by the factors [10][11][12][13] as mentioned and analyzed in Section 1. Thus, the problem of target ghosting and dislocation may exist in the overlapping areas of formed image and the following processing must be conducted.…”