Field Performance Evaluation of New Methods for In-Situ Calibration of Attitude and Doppler Sensors for Underwater Vehicle Navigation

G. Troni, J.C. Kinsey, D.R. Yoerger, and L.L. Whitcomb. Proceedings of the 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. May 2012, St Paul, Minnesota.

We report a comparative performance evaluation, using at-sea field data, of recently reported methods for the problem of in-situ calibration of the alignment rotation matrix between Doppler sonar velocity sensors and inertial navigation sensors arising in the navigation of underwater vehicles. Most previously reported solutions to this alignment calibration problem require the use of absolute navigation fixes of the underwater vehicle, thus requiring additional navigation sensors and/or beacons to be located externally and apart from the underwater vehicle. We briefly review four recently reported alignment calibration methods employing only internal vehicle navigation sensors for velocity, acceleration, attitude, and depth. We report the results of comparative analysis of the performance of these recently reported methods and a previously reported method with navigation data from deep-water survey missions of the Sentry autonomous underwater vehicle conducted in March, 2011 in the Kermadec Arc in the Southern Pacific Ocean. The results reveal consistent differences in performance of the various methods when analyzed on navigation data from several different vehicle dives.