Surface Target Tracking Using Towed Array Sonars With Direct and Bottom Bounce Underwater Sound Signals

This article considers a scenario where multiple Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) are deployed to track a maneuvering surface target. Each UUV moves close to the sea bottom while towing a line array sonar. A Towed Array Sonar (TAS) is desirable, since it makes the array's sensors away from the UUV's own noise sources. In this way, one can improve its signal-to-noise ratio. Since an UUV moves close to the sea bottom, its TAS can measure the conic angle of direct sound as well as the bottom bounce sound from the target. The UUV's goal is to track a surface target ship by processing the direct and bounce sound signals in real time. As far as we know, our paper is novel in tracking a maneuvering surface target, based on controls of UUVs which tow TASs respectively. Moreover, this article is novel in presenting a target tracking algorithm based on reverberated sound measurements (direct and bounce sound) of multiple UUVs equipped with TASs. The effectiveness of our tracking algorithm is demonstrated utilizing MATLAB simulations.