Single Sensor Source Localization

Abstract

Passive source localization using single hydrophone has received considerable attention in the last decade particularly in marine biological studies. If proven successful, it should and tremendous applications, both in military and civilian. Underwater vehicles such as gliders, AUVs, ROVs, torpedoes, mines, etc. seldom have more than one sensor fitted on them for carrying out reconnaissance/ threat neutralization operations. Therefore, this paper investigates the usage of a method based on multipath time delays to estimate the slant range between the source and receiver. Time delays estimated theoretically were used to establish the usefulness/ limitations of this method. Surface ships radiated noise signature was subjected to cepstral analysis to estimate time delays between the direct path and the surface reected path. The time delays thus obtained were used for estimating the slant range between the source and receiver. The comparison between the measured and the estimated time delays was found to be satisfactory. An error analysis was carried out to study the uncertainities added by the ocean environment to the measurements. LS method was also proposed to find out the motion parameters. Simulations were carried for this method using data series obtained from bellhop model.