Underwater Terrain Positioning Method Based on Least Squares Estimation for AUV

To achieve accurate positioning of autonomous underwater vehicles, an appropriate underwater terrain database storage format for underwater terrain-matching positioning is established using multi-beam data as underwater terrain-matching data. An underwater terrain interpolation error compensation method based on fractional Brownian motion is proposed for defects of normal terrain interpolation, and an underwater terrain-matching positioning method based on least squares estimation (LSE) is proposed for correlation analysis of topographic features. The Fisher method is introduced as a secondary criterion for pseudo localization appearing in a topographic features flat area, effectively reducing the impact of pseudo positioning points on matching accuracy and improving the positioning accuracy of terrain flat areas. Simulation experiments based on electronic chart and multi-beam sea trial data show that drift errors of an inertial navigation system can be corrected effectively using the proposed method. The positioning accuracy and practicality are high, satisfying the requirement of underwater accurate positioning.