Robust terrain navigation with the correlation method for high position accuracy

Describes the correlation method for determining the position of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) in shallow waters. The method is conceptually simple. It involves measuring the seabed topography with a few sonar pings over a limited area by an ordinary bathymetric multibeam sonar. These measurements are then correlated with existing underwater maps. The position estimate from the correlation method can often be used as it is or fused by a linear Kalman filter with almost optimal performance. The paper also shows results from a sea-trial with the Reson SeaBat 8001 multibeam bathymetric sonar. The achieved 1/spl sigma/-circular accuracy is 0.3-0.4 metre in the north of the Baltic Sea.