A matched field processing approach to long range acoustic navigation

• Main Author: Deffenbaugh, Max
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 1994
• Subjects: Underwater acoustics; Arctic
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/1912/5558

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution February 1994 This thesis presents the design and simulation of an acoustic listen-only navigation system for use in a time-varying high-multipath environment. The system uses a ray tracing model of sound propagation in a horizontally stratified ocean to associate each multipath arrival with a particular ray path through the ocean. This ray path identification allows an inversion for both vehicle position and sound speed profile parameters. Tracking changes in the sound speed profile allows the vehicle to maintain navigation accuracy in a time-varying acoustic environment. Simulation results for typical Arctic conditions indicate the potential for accurate navigation from acoustic beacons at ranges up to tens of kilometers. I also wish to acknowledge the support received from a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship under Grant #RCD-9154652 and from the Office of Naval Research Arctic Programs Office, which made possible this work.