Position estimations of acoustic sensors based on matching multipath arrival time differences in shallow water

The multipath arrival time structure of a vertical line array deployed in shallow water was analyzed in this paper. The extracted multipath arrival time structure of the linear frequency modulated (LFM) signals was special that the deeper hydrophone received signals earlier than the shallower hydrophone. Positions of eighteen acoustic sensors were estimated by matching multipath arrival time differences between simulated results and observed data. The estimated results show that the vertical line array was titled a lot during the experiment time. The array gain will be improved with the accurate sensor positions and this method provides an approach for testifying the depth sensor data.