A new flexible array self-calibration method for short baseline hydroacoustic passive localization system

A real-time sensor array self-calibration method is presented in this paper to reduce the ship-based flexible array element coordinates uncertainty in short baseline passive localization system. Six composite sensing elements are deployed to form the flexible array. Three of them emit direct spread spectrum DPSK pulse to measure the distance between six elements. Coordinates of these elements were then calculated based on these distances. Lake experiment data are used to validate this method. The source distances and bearing calculated using the calibrated sensing elements coordinates agree well with the GPS data.