Dead Reckoning Navigation System for Underwater Drones

Dead Reckoning Navigation System for Underwater Drones Using Tidal and Background Current Data

This technology is a navigation system that predicts the future path of an underwater drone by separating current data acquired by an onboard sensor into tidal and background current components. It minimizes estimation errors by applying a Kalman filter algorithm to each component and integrates tidal cycle and spatiotemporal background current parameters specific to the target sea area.

Existing underwater drones struggle to distinguish between tidal and background currents, making precise path prediction impossible in strong currents or complex marine environments, which compromises operational stability.

This technology features a module that separates current measurement data into tidal and background components. It applies a Kalman filter to each component to iteratively correct data noise and model errors, and improves dead reckoning precision by building a current model that incorporates regional tidal cycles and spatiotemporal background current scales.

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Key Features:

• Current measurement unit integrated into the underwater drone for real-time monitoring of currents in the navigation area
• Tidal information calculation unit that derives tidal data from the measured current information
• Background current calculation unit that derives background current data from the measured current information
• Path prediction unit that forecasts the underwater drone's trajectory based on the calculated tidal or background current data and the regional tidal cycles and spatiotemporal scales

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