Modeling and sensor fusion of a remotely operated underwater vehicle

We compare dead-reckoning of underwater vehicles based on inertial sensors and kinematic models on one hand, and control inputs and hydrodynamic model on the other hand. Both can be used in an inertial navigation system to provide relative motion and absolute orientation of the vehicle. The combination of them is particularly useful for robust navigation in the case of missing data from the crucial doppler log speedometer. As a concrete result, we demonstrate that the performance critical doppler log can be replaced with longitudinal dynamics in the case of missing data, based on field test data of a remotely operated vehicle.