Analysis of error sources in underwater localization systems

In underwater localization several sources of error may impact in different ways the final estimation of the position. This applies to the Long Baseline (LBL), the Short Baseline (SBL) and the Ultra-Short Baseline (USBL) localization systems. Through simulations and statistical analysis, it is possible to identify and experimentally characterize such sources of error. It could be also investigated how much these sources of error influence the estimation results of an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF). This paper presents the results of experiments designed in a virtual environment, useful to represent real localization systems. Specifically, the system used for the simulation is constituted by a surface platform equipped with four acoustic transducers used for the localization of an underwater target.