A theoretical comparison of acoustic systems for near-bottom navigation

Range-range, bearing-bearing, range-and-bearing and three configurations of hyperbolic navigation system, for use at depths at which temperature fluctuations contribute significantly to errors in position fixing, are compared with regard to accuracy, shape of error distribution, ease of installation of fixed transponder/pinger array, and system complexity. The sensitivity of the systems to incorrect assessment of assumed parameters is presented. Range-and-bearing is shown to be superior on every count to its closest rival, range-range.