Range Ambiguity Suppression for Underwater Distributed Localization Based on Total Support Degree

Underwater distributed synchronous positioning can be adopted to locate moving targets at a high speed. But the problem of range ambiguity always exists, as synchronous period of the system is short. A range ambiguity suppression method based on total support degree (TSD) is proposed for solving the range ambiguity problem with multipath interference. The time of arrival and phase difference measurements are used to calculate alternative coordinates of the target. Then total support degree is employed to evaluate the majority agreement of alternative coordinates. Finally, ambiguity periods are distinguished by comparing the total support degrees, thus unambiguous localization under complex underwater multipath circumstance can be guaranteed. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method.