Underwater Navigation Based on Topographic Contour Image Matching

Based on analyzing the situation of current underwater navigation, this paper presents an independent underwater navigation method, namely the terrain matching algorithm based on contour image. Firstly, according to multibeam bathymetric system data, the topographic contours are extracted out from the data and then form contour image. Secondly, the contour used for image matching is coded. The coding series is used for expressing the contour. Thirdly, by using the coding series of contour, the image registration between the surveying contour image and the reference contour image is implemented. After acquiring the registration parameters, the surveying underwater topography fulfills the match with the reference underwater topography. and the current position, which is also that of surveying underwater topography, is drawn out from the reference underwater topography. Finally, the method was used for experiments. The results show that the method mentioned in this paper works well and has higher reliability in underwater navigation.