Navigation for the Derbyshire Phase2 Survey

Abstract

In 1997, the Deep Submergence Operations Group of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution conducted an underwater forensic survey of the UK bulk carrier MV Derbyshire with a suite of underwater vehicles. This report describes the navigation systems and methodologies used to precisely position the vessel and vehicles. Precise navigation permits the survey team to control the path of the subsea vehicle in order to execute the survey plan, provides the ability to return to specific targets, and allows the assessment team to correlate observations made at different times from different vehicles. In this report, we summarize the techniques used to locate Argo as well as the repeatability of those navigation fixes. To determine repeatability, we selected a number of instances where the vehicle lines crossed. By registering two images from overlapping areas on different tracklines, we can determine the true position offset. By comparing the position offset derived from the images to the offsets obtained from navigation, we can determine the navigation error. The average error for 123 points across a single tie line was 3.1 meters, the average error for a more scattered selection of 18 points was 1.9 meters.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 1999
Accession Number
ADA370001

Entities

People

  • D. Yoerger
  • S. Lerner
  • T. Crook

Organizations

  • Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Ground and Sea Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acoustic Navigation
  • Crossings
  • Dynamic Response
  • Engineering
  • Errors
  • Global Positioning Systems
  • Grids
  • Measurement
  • Navigation
  • Navigators
  • Oceanography
  • Three Dimensional
  • Travel Time
  • United States
  • United States Government
  • Universities
  • Vehicles

Readers

  • Geodesy
  • Oceanography.
  • Systems Analysis and Design