Experimental Results of Underwater Cooperative Source Localization Using a Single Acoustic Vector Sensor

TLDR

A vector sensor measures both scalar acoustic pressure and vectorial particle velocity at a single location. This paper aims to estimate the azimuth, range, and depth of a cooperative broadband acoustic source using a single vector sensor in multipath underwater environments. The method uses echo amplitudes in the sensor components to determine azimuth and elevation, then applies a ray‑based back‑propagation algorithm with known channel conditions to compute range and depth, and is validated on simulated data and experimental Makai’05 chirp signals. For short ranges, the estimated source position matches the experimental geometry, and the method is computationally lightweight, making it suitable for mobile, low‑power platforms.

Abstract

This paper aims at estimating the azimuth, range and depth of a cooperative broadband acoustic source with a single vector sensor in a multipath underwater environment, where the received signal is assumed to be a linear combination of echoes of the source emitted waveform. A vector sensor is a device that measures the scalar acoustic pressure field and the vectorial acoustic particle velocity field at a single location in space. The amplitudes of the echoes in the vector sensor components allow one to determine their azimuth and elevation. Assuming that the environmental conditions of the channel are known, source range and depth are obtained from the estimates of elevation and relative time delays of the different echoes using a ray-based backpropagation algorithm. The proposed method is tested using simulated data and is further applied to experimental data from the Makai’05 experiment, where 8–14 kHz chirp signals were acquired by a vector sensor array. It is shown that for short ranges, the position of the source is estimated in agreement with the geometry of the experiment. The method is low computational demanding, thus well-suited to be used in mobile and light platforms, where space and power requirements are limited.