Experimental results of real-time sonar-based underwater localization using landmarks

Abstract

This paper presents experimental results of a realtime sonar-based localization technique using the probability-based landmark-recognition method. Sonar based localization is used for the navigation of unmanned underwater vehicle (UUVs). Inertial sensors such as inertial measurement unitss (IMUs), Doppler velocity logs (DVLs), and external information obtained from sonar are combined using the extended Kalman filter (EKF) technique to obtain the navigation information. We estimate the vehicle location using inertial sensor data, and it is corrected using sonar data, which provides the relative position between the vehicle and a landmark placed on the bottom. To verify the suitability of the proposed method, we perform experiments in a basin environment using the UUV, “yShark”.