Theoretical Passive Sonar Performance of a Cluster of UUV Towed Line Arrays Employing Orientation Diversity

This paper characterizes the theoretical passive sonar performance of a cluster of small unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) towed line arrays where the UUVs maneuver to maintain orientation diversity amongst the array bearing angles. A novel coordinated control method has been developed that generates polygonal path based UUV heading sequences. These sequences simultaneously ensure orientation diversity both between vehicles and along a given vehicle´s path, while at the same time bounding the cluster divergence, and also translating the cluster. This paper provides a theoretical performance characterization for a cluster with respect to a given environmental scenario that considers the cluster track, cluster size, polygonal path sequence, and cycle length.