NEEC: Active Cooperative Terrain Aided Navigation Using Inverted-USBL
Abstract
Technical Point of Contact: Matthew Bays, NSWC PCD NEEC Topic Number: PC-02 Publicly Releasable Project Abstract The feature-poor environment of the underwater domain makes it difficult for low-cost unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) to maintain localization accuracy when traveling large distances under GPS-denied conditions. Terrain-aided navigation (TAN) attempts to correct navigation drift by comparing observed depth measurements to a prior bathymetry map. However, these techniques depend on observation of changes in bathymetry. If the bathymetry of the environment is mostly constant and the UUV fails to travel over the points that do vary, then TAN will fail to correct navigation drift. Teams of agents performing cooperative localization have the potential to overcome these problems by increasing the search space observed by the individual agents. If an accurate relative localization is maintained between the agents, then a useful observation by any one of the UUVs will result in improved localization for the entire group. Moreover, by optimizing the trajectories of each of the vehicles, we can seek to maximize the likelihood that useful changes in bathymetry will be observed by the coordinating agents - resulting in even further increases in localization accuracy. Ultimately, depending on the bathymetry of the environment, it is possible that an optimal trajectory for the team could be found that ensures drift can be entirely corrected for using these techniques. In this project, we seek to investigate the various problems that need to be addressed to enable cooperative terrain-aided navigation at large scales. In particular, we propose to investigate: i) Communication-Constrained Cooperative Inverted-USBL Localization, ii) Cooperative Terrain-Aided Navigation, and iii) Optimal Planning for Active Cooperative TAN. Expected results include publications in tier-one robotics venues and demonstrated evaluation of the proposed algorithms via real-world field trials.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Mar 12, 2025
- Source ID
- N001742310005
Entities
People
- Joshua G. Mangelson
Organizations
- Brigham Young University
- United States Navy