Optimal Hydrophone Placement Method of Bistatic Sonar Sensors for Tracking Underwater Targets

This article considers how to improve the localization accuracy of a target in 3-D underwater environments using a set of sonar sensors. This research considers bistatic sonar sensors composed of one sound source and multiple omnidirectional hydrophones in 3-D underwater environments. We consider an underwater omnidirectional hydrophone, which measures bistatic range of the underwater target. We consider 3-D underwater environments, such that the depth of a hydrophone or the source can be different from that of the target. The omnidirectional hydrophone estimates the underwater target location by processing bistatic range in sonar measurements. This research considers the practical scenario in which a target location information isn’t accessible a priori. As far as we know, our article is novel in addressing how to deploy multiple omnidirectional hydrophones processing bistatic range measurements, for minimizing the uncertainty on the 3-D underwater target location. MATLAB-based simulations are employed to verify the proposed 3-D hydrophone deployment strategy.