Multisensor Fusion for Navigation of Underwater Vehicles

The guidance of underwater vehicles presents a high challenge for the applied algorithms. The difficulties are mainly determined by the highly non-linear behavior of the vehicle, the very complicated position determination and - resulting from the vehicle´s behavior - a robust design of the autopilot. Multisensor fusion is used for hundreds of years on sailing ships and is also a proven concept for the position calculation of underwater vehicles. This paper gives an overview of the techniques used for navigation of a remotely operated and an autonomous vehicle