English

Underwater Doppler Navigation with Self-calibration

Robotics 2015-09-08 v1 Systems and Control

Abstract

Precise autonomous navigation remains a substantial challenge to all underwater platforms. Inertial Measurement Units (IMU) and Doppler Velocity Logs (DVL) have complementary characteristics and are promising sensors that could enable fully autonomous underwater navigation in unexplored areas without relying on additional external Global Positioning System (GPS) or acoustic beacons. This paper addresses the combined IMU/DVL navigation system from the viewpoint of observability. We show by analysis that under moderate conditions the combined system is observable. Specifically, the DVL parameters, including the scale factor and misalignment angles, can be calibrated in-situ without using external GPS or acoustic beacon sensors. Simulation results using a practical estimator validate the analytic conclusions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1509.02054,
  title  = {Underwater Doppler Navigation with Self-calibration},
  author = {Xianfei Pan and Yuanxin Wu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1509.02054},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

To appear in Journal of Navigation

R2 v1 2026-06-22T10:50:48.582Z