Acoustic transponder navigation-an optimal estimation approach

An application of the extended Kalman filter to acoustic oceanic transponder position determination is presented. The filter processes data collected from the transponders as well as data collected from a high-precision navigation system, such as the Global Positioning System (GPS), to estimate the relative transponder locations. Simulation experiments show that the percent final estimation error lies in the range of .001% to .18%, depending on the coordinate in question and on the type of measurement noise used in the simulation. The assumed transponder depth in the simulations is about 5 km, and the assumed baseline, which is the line joining two transponders, is 10 km.<
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