Sonar image processing based underwater localization method and its experimental studies

In this paper, we propose a sonar image processing based underwater localization method. P-SURO II is a sort of hybrid AUV which can be operated in both of ROV and AUV modes [1]. For this vehicle, there is a 2D BlueView sonar mounted in front of the platform for obstacle detection. This sonar also can be used for underwater localization in certain specific environments. In [2], the authors proposed a sonar aided inertial navigation method. However, in this case, they used the BVTRangeData Object [3], and therefore the algorithm was strongly restricted in certain specific environments such as water tank where we can easily abstract the line information from sonar range measurement. For more complicated environment, this method is difficult to be directly applicable. In this paper, we propose a sonar image (BVTMagImage Object [3]) processing based localization method which can be applicable to complicated underwater artificial structure environment where the structure information is known in priori. Some of water tank experimental studies are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed localization scheme.