An Installation Angle Error Calibration Method in an Ultra-Short Baseline System Based on a Dual Transponder

Abstract The installation error of an acoustic transceiver array is one of the important error sources in an ultra-short baseline (USBL) system. In a USBL system with a positioning accuracy of 0.5%, an installation error angle of 1° will lead to a positioning error of 1.7% times the slant distance. In this paper, a dual transponder-based installation angle error calibration method for USBL is proposed. First, the positioning errors induced by various installation angles are deduced and analysed using the linear measurement of seafloor targets. Then, an iterative algorithm is proposed that estimates the rolling alignment error, pitching alignment error, and heading alignment error, in that order. The simulation and experienced results show that, after three iterations, the estimates of the three alignment errors can converge quickly, all of the estimates converge to within 0.001° and the estimated values are very close to the true values. The horizontal positioning error caused by the installation error angle can be reduced by nearly 75%. The method has good effectiveness and robustness, and can greatly improve the positioning accuracy of the USBL system.