Real-Time Adjustment Underwater Positioning System for Submarines

Abstract

A rapid real-time adjustment scheme is proposed for improving the precision of the conventional short-base line (SBL) positioning fix system used by submarines and other underwater vehicles. In the proposed approach, an initial position estimate is obtained by solving the conventional SBL tracking equations of the submarine given the assumptions of a constant speed of sound in water and a straight-line propagation path. In the first stage of the real-time adjustment procedure, this initial estimate is corrected using an iterative computation scheme based on a 3D geometry model. The improved position estimate is then used to compute a new, more accurate value of the speed of sound in water. Finally, in the second stage of the real-time adjustment procedure, the corrected speed of sound in water and the discrepancy between the original and corrected position estimates obtained in the first adjustment procedure are applied to update the coordinates of the submarine based on the second signal received from the pinger. The numerical results show that the proposed real-time adjustment system yields a significant improvement in the accuracy of the positioning fix estimates compared to those obtained from the conventional SBL method or the SBL method with the first adjustment procedure only.

Keywords:

• Submarines
• real-time
• SBL
• pinger
• iterative

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided to this study by the National Science Council of the Republic of China under Contract No. NSC 92-2611-E-232-001