A Single Source-Aided Inertial Integrated Navigation Scheme for Passive Navigation of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

A passive navigation method of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) without transmitting signals is stressed in this article, which has the advantages of good concealment and high security. An inertial navigation system (INS) is a kind of autonomous navigation, which can be used for the passive positioning of AUVs. However, the divergence of INS error limits its application in long endurance and long-range navigation. Thus, a single source-aided inertial integrated navigation scheme is proposed in this article. A fixed sound source emits the acoustic signal periodically, and the time-difference-of-arrival (TDOA) of the signal is adopted to suppress the error divergence of INS. The AUV does not need to interact with the sound source. The principle of single source location is analyzed and an INS/TDOA tightly coupled integrated navigation model is designed to reduce the inertial navigation error. The simulation and field tests show that the proposed method can effectively restrain the divergence of inertial navigation errors. The AUV can autonomously complete error correction near the sound source and realize the passive navigation and positioning function for long endurance.