Navigation Method for Underwater Vehicles Based on Mutual Acoustical Positioning With a Single Seafloor Station

Sakamaki

et al. 2015

IEEE J. Oceanic Eng.

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This study proposes a state estimation and compression method for navigating multiple autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) toward wide area surveys near seafloors. In the proposed method, a moving AUV navigates by referencing a stationary landmark AUV on the seafloor. By alternating the landmark role, all AUVs can cover a wide area while maintaining low positioning errors. The moving AUV estimates the states (positions and headings) of both moving and landmark AUVs by a stochastic approach called a particle filter. When AUVs exchange their landmark roles, they must share their estimated states. However, state sharing is precluded by the low data rate of acoustical communications in underwater environments. To overcome the problem, this paper proposes a state compression method in which AUVs approximate their states by "particle clustering" based on a clustering method ( -means) and a model evaluation method (Akaike information criterion). The compression method enables AUVs to share their states by communicating small amounts of data. The proposed method was evaluated in simulations of two AUVs navigating over a 300 300-m seafloor area. Throughout the simulation, the proposed method maintained stable positioning and successful state sharing with small communication data size.

Section: Outline Of the Proposed Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: State Estimationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: State Estimationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Selection Of An Optimal Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

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State Estimation and Compression Method for the Navigation of Multiple Autonomous Underwater Vehicles With Limited Communication Traffic

Sakamaki

et al. 2015

IEEE J. Oceanic Eng.

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“…A moving AUV estimates its states from navigation sensors and its position relative to a landmark AUV. A mutual acoustical positioning is adopted [17], and the stationary landmark AUV provides a reference that guides the moving AUV. By alternating the landmark role, all AUVs cover a wide area while maintaining low positioning error.…”

Section: A Navigationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cooperative navigation method of multiple autonomous underwater vehicles for wide seafloor survey — Sea experiment with two AUVs

Sato

et al. 2014

Oceans 2014 - Taipei

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In this paper, we report sea experiments using two AUVs on which the cooperative navigation method proposed in the previous report was implemented. The method divides vehicles into two groups: moving and landmark vehicles. A moving AUV estimates the states (horizontal positions and heading angle) from its ground velocity, horizontal angular velocity, and acoustical positioning relative to a landmark AUV remaining stationary on the seafloor. Each AUV can navigate over a wide area with small drift by alternating the landmark role. The proposed method is implemented on two actual AUVs (AUV Tri-Dog 1 and AUV Tri-TON). Both AUVs were evaluated in sea trials at Suruga Bay, Japan, in November 2013. The AUVs succeeded in a cooperative navigation, alternatively becoming the landmark. The performance of the method was verified through the sea experiments and post-processing simulation using the experimental results.

Alternating landmark navigation of multiple AUVs for wide seafloor survey: Field experiment and performance verification

Journal of Field Robotics

Sato

et al. 2017

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This paper reports the results of the sea experiments and the performance verification of a navigation method for wide area surveys of the seafloor using multiple autonomous underwater and "Tri-TON." The performance of the method was verified using these AUVs through sea experiments and postprocessing simulation using experimental data. In addition, it was also verified that the performance of the method is comparable to high-grade conventional navigation methods, such as LBL or SSBL, through simulations of long distance navigation.