An Integrated System for Geophysical Navigation of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles.

Abstract

This paper presents a geophysical navigation system for small, affordable underwater robotic vehicles that exploits the information provided by geomagnetic features observed on the seafloor in order to correct the unavoidable drift in position error incurred by dead-reckoning navigation. The approach described combines a sequential estimation algorithm previous developed by the authors with a complementary profile correlation method. The outcome of this integration enhances the estimated position of a marine robotic vehicle in difficult operation conditions.