Gaussian Sum Filter based SLAM for Autonomous Navigation of Underwater Vehicles using Acoustic Sources

Underwater localization is crucial for autonomous navigation of underwater vehicles. This paper presents a method of acoustic based underwater localization. It utilizes artificial acoustic sources as underwater landmarks. A vehicle is equipped with two hydrophones so that it acquires acoustic signals emitted by the acoustic sources. Directional information of the acoustic source is estimated by time difference of arrivals. Then, Gaussian sum filter based SLAM is performed by fusing inertial sensors with the directional angles of acoustic sources to estimate locations of both the vehicle and acoustic sources. The proposed method can provide an accurate acoustic based underwater localization without any prior information of source location. The performance of the proposed method is demonstrated by field test conducted in an inland water environment.

[1]  Hanumant Singh,et al.  Advances in Underwater Robot Vehicles for Deep Ocean Exploration: Navigation, Control, and Survey Operations , 2000 .

[2]  L.L. Whitcomb,et al.  Recent Advances in Synchronous-Clock One-Way-Travel-Time Acoustic Navigation , 2006, OCEANS 2006.

[3]  K. Vickery,et al.  Acoustic positioning systems. A practical overview of current systems , 1998, Proceedings of the 1998 Workshop on Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (Cat. No.98CH36290).

[4]  John J. Leonard,et al.  Pure range-only sub-sea SLAM , 2003, 2003 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.03CH37422).

[5]  Wolfram Burgard,et al.  Probabilistic Robotics (Intelligent Robotics and Autonomous Agents) , 2005 .

[6]  Gamini Dissanayake,et al.  Bearing-only SLAM Using a SPRT Based Gaussian Sum Filter , 2005, Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[7]  G. Carter,et al.  The generalized correlation method for estimation of time delay , 1976 .

[8]  A. Caiti,et al.  Toward underwater acoustic-based simultaneous localization and mapping. Experimental results with the Typhoon AUV at CommsNet13 sea trial , 2014, 2014 Oceans - St. John's.

[9]  A. Pascoal,et al.  UNDERWATER ACOUSTIC POSITIONING SYSTEMS BASED ON BUOYS WITH GPS , 2006 .

[10]  Erin M. Fischell,et al.  One-way travel-time inverted ultra-short baseline localization for low-cost autonomous underwater vehicles , 2017, 2017 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).

[11]  E. Olson,et al.  Robust Range-Only Beacon Localization , 2004, IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering.

[12]  Jinwoo Choi,et al.  Robust Directional Angle Estimation of Underwater Acoustic Sources Using a Marine Vehicle , 2018, Sensors.

[13]  L. Whitcomb,et al.  A SURVEY OF UNDERWATER VEHICLE NAVIGATION : RECENT ADVANCES AND NEW CHALLENGES , 2006 .