AUV Position Uncertainty and Target Reacquisition

The localization and identification of underwater targets is a common task for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs). For those missions, typically, AUVs are required to first survey the area of interest, subsequently revisiting previously detected targets for a more detailed inspection. The process of revisiting a target, also called target reacquisition, is dependent on the accuracy of the position of the identification vehicle, but also on the accuracy of the position of the target. Nevertheless, such position uncertainties are often disregarded and overlooked when planning for such kind of missions. In this paper we present a method to estimate position uncertainty for target reacquisition with an AUV. We then use the presented model to evaluate the overall position uncertainty for different configurations, and we show that, if disregarded, position uncertainty can have a detrimental effect for the success of reacquisition missions.