Confidence-based Underwater Localization Scheme for Large-Scale Mobile Sensor Networks

The absence of Global Positioning System in underwater environment predominates in the challenges of underwater vehicles navigation or sensor nodes tracking. Localization of single or few underwater vehicles has been fostered in recent years. However, online simultaneous tracking of large-scale mobile sensor network is still a very challenging research area due to the high cost and the very limited number of vehicles that can be simultaneously localized using Ultra-Short Base Line (USBL) system. We propose a confidence-based localization algorithm for large-scale underwater mobile sensor networks that employs high precision localized sensor nodes in neighboring sensor nodes localization. Numerical simulation shows that a swarm of 100 sensor nodes can be tracked using a single USBL system, range measurement sensors and communication modems.