Particle filter approach for localization of an underwater robot using time difference of arrival

This paper shows experimental analysis of an underwater robot localization method based on particle filter(PF). The method uses time difference of arrival(TDOA) of acoustic signals from beacons around a robot. Simulation results reveal dependency of the performance of the method upon degree of uncertainty of sensor data and robot motion. Also comparison of the PF method with the least squares method of spherical interpolation and spherical intersection is provided. Since the PF method uses both the internal motion information as well as TDOA, its estimation is more accurate and robust to the sensor and motion uncertainty than the least squares methods.