New Estimation Methods for the Navigation Error of the UUVs

In this paper, we considered the problem to improve the performance of the UUV when the navigation error exists in the application of target acquisition. The mother ship guides the UUV to acquire the target based on the location information sent back by the UUV. Since the navigation error exists, the discovery probability of the target has been highly decreased. Based on the modeling of the navigation error of the UUV, a least squire (LS) estimation method and a Maximum Likelihood (ML) estimation method are proposed to compensate the navigation error, in which the azimuth of the UUV achieved by the sensors on the mother ship has been used. Simulation results show that the proposed two methods can highly improve the acquisition performance, and the ML estimation method performs even better than the LS estimation method.