(Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1994-02)
Deffenbaugh, Max
This thesis presents the design and simulation of an acoustic listen-only navigation
system for use in a time-varying high-multipath environment. The system uses a ray
tracing model of sound propagation in a horizontally stratified ocean to associate each
multipath arrival with a particular ray path through the ocean. This ray path identification
allows an inversion for both vehicle position and sound speed profile parameters. Tracking
changes in the sound speed profile allows the vehicle to maintain navigation accuracy in a
time-varying acoustic environment. Simulation results for typical Arctic conditions indicate
the potential for accurate navigation from acoustic beacons at ranges up to tens of
kilometers.
