Sensitivity Analysis of Long Baseline System with Three Transponders

세 개의 트랜스폰더로 이루어진 장기선 위치추적장치의 민감도 해석

Underwater acoustic navigation systems are classified into three systems: ultra-short baseline (USBL), short baseline (SBL), and long baseline (LBL). Because the USBL system estimates the angle of a submersible, the estimation error becomes large if the submersible is far from the USBL transducer array mounted under a support vessel. SBL and LBL systems estimate submersible's location more accurately because they have wider distribution of measuring sensors. Especially LBL systems are widely used as a navigation system for deep ocean applications. Although it is most accurate system it still has estimation errors because of noise, measurement error, refraction and multi-path of acoustic signal, or wrong information of the distributed transponders. In this paper the estimation error of the LBL system are analyzed from a point of sensitivity. It is assumed that the error exists only in the distance between a submersible and the transponders. For this purpose sensitivity of the estimated position with respect to relative distances between them is analyzed. The result says that estimation error is small if the submersible is close to transponders but not near the ocean bottom.