An Experimental Study on a Precise Positioning System with a Correction Guidance Method for Underwater Vehicles

This research try to create a navigation application that integrates a precise positioning system with a correction guidance method for underwater vehicles. The proposed solution enhances practical exploration by allowing these vehicles to navigate and control themselves accurately within a three-dimensional underwater environment. Underwater vehicles depend on accurate positioning systems to move efficiently underwater. However, traditional satellitebased positioning systems, such as GPS, are not effective in the underwater environment due to its unique conditions. These challenges include difficulties with transmitting radiofrequency signals, problems with light absorption, and the limited effectiveness of machine vision in practical applications. This study has created a correction guidance method for a specialized navigation system designed to address the challenges of underwater exploration, aiming to improve the performance of underwater vehicles. The research utilizes Ultra-Short Baseline (USBL) acoustic technology for positioning, which includes an underwater locator, a receiving antenna/receiver, a baseline array, and a surface instrument box. To enhance underwater positioning accuracy and address concerns related to the underwater environment, this system integrates with both high-precision satellite positioning (RTK-GPS) and the Marine Geographic Information System (MGIS). This integration allows for the simultaneous collection of accurate underwater positioning data, similar to how GPS works for surface vehicles. The underwater positioning system was converted from a relative coordinate system to an absolute coordinate system using MGIS. High-precision positioning data is achieved through custom-developed application programs (APIs) and a correction guidance method, which simplifies ROV navigation control. In practical experimental testing, this study effectively used underwater vehicle positioning information and spatial geographic data to help ROV operators perform accurate underwater positioning tests at four water intake fence locations, which are at a depth of 63 meters in the reservoir. This experiment successfully gathered valuable images for research work.