Research Summaries

Back Underwater Acoustic Network as Deployable Tracking Range

Fiscal Year 2012
Division Graduate School of Engineering & Applied Science
Department Physics
Investigator(s) King, Rebecca
Sponsor Space & Naval Warfare Systems Center-Pacific (Navy)
Summary Seaweb is an acoustic communications network which passes data between submerged nodes and a command and control center ashore. Range data recorded incident to regular transmissions between nodes affords the Seaweb network an additional use as a navigational aide or tracking system for a vehicle operating in the network domain. Previous studies developed algorithms to solve for the position of the stationary and mobile nodes with minimal error using the range data. This study implements the developed localization and tracking algorithms for experimentation in simulated and actual maritime environments. Fixed nodes are deployed and localized to establish a Seaweb network in Del Monte Lake on the Naval Postgraduate School campus. Experimental range data are used to plot the path of a remote-controlled surface vehicle. GPS position data is simultaneously recorded for comparison of the calculated track and the true track. The ability to compare the calculated surface vehicle track to the actual track throughout the experiment will provide a more definitive measure of the network's performance than was allowed in previous studies. The establishment of a Seaweb network in Del Monte Lake will allow for continuing local experiments. Previous studies have shown Seaweb to outperform inertial navigation in some cases. Submarines and unmanned underwater vehicles must surface periodically to reestablish their position via GPS due to errors inherent in inertial navigation. Increased accuracy of Seaweb range data and positioning will lead to improved navigation of submerged vehicles.
Keywords
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Data Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal