Embedded Spherical Localization for Micro Underwater Vehicles Based on Attenuation of Electro-Magnetic Carrier Signals

Abstract

Self-localization is one of the most challenging problems for deploying micro autonomous underwater vehicles (μAUV) in confined underwater environments. This paper extends a recently-developed self-localization method that is based on the attenuation of electro-magnetic waves, to the μAUV domain. We demonstrate a compact, low-cost architecture that is able to perform all signal processing steps present in the original method. The system is passive with one-way signal transmission and scales to possibly large μAUV fleets. It is based on the spherical localization concept. We present results from static and dynamic position estimation experiments and discuss the tradeoffs of the system.

Localisation of Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) in Complex and Confined Environments: A Review

“…The concept of underwater robot localisation based on the attenuation of electromagnetic (EM) carrier signal waves for short range localisation has been explored in a recent series of publications [105][106][107][108][109][110][111]. EM-localisation exploits the strong attenuation of EM-carrier signals in water, which is otherwise usually undesirable e.g., for communication.…”

“…Various EM-frequency bands are possible and longer wavelengths allow for extended detection ranges. However, known approaches [107][108][109][110] favor the commercial 433 MHz frequency band since suitable transmission and receiving devices are available off-the-shelf.…”

“…This size and cost challenge is addressed in [109], where the authors present a small scale and low-cost approach to EM-based localisation targeting deployment in micro UUVs. They replace the large and expensive spectrum analyzer by a digital video broadcast (DVB-T) USB dongle, which is capable of software defined radio (SDR) and a RaspberryPi single board computer (SBC), see Figure 8.…”

“…The suitability of this setup for position feedback control on-board a micro AUV is demonstrated and critically discussed in [110] for two confined scenarios. Hardware setups for EM-based localisation; using an external vector spectrum analyzer [105,106] (left) and the miniaturized DVB-T USB-dongle SDR-based concept with single board computer by [109,110] (right).…”

Underwater target passive acoustic localization method based on Hanbury Brown–Twiss interference

“…At sea, owing to the complexity of the marine environment, underwater positioning encounters significant difficulties and challenges (Zhang et al , 2020; Ali et al , 2021), which have prompted the emergence of a growing number of localization methods. Conventional localization methods use electromagnetic or optical waves to determine the target position and are gradually being applied underwater (Park et al , 2015; Duecker et al , 2017; Munasinghe et al , 2017; Saeed et al , 2018; Wu et al , 2019). However, such waves are heavily attenuated in water and cannot penetrate the surface of the ocean; therefore, their use in underwater information transmission is challenging.…”