A Study on Optimal Placement of Underwater Target Position Tracking System considering Marine Environment

Abstract

The tracking accuracy of buoy-based LBL(Long Base Line) systems can be significantly influenced by sea environmental conditions. Particularly, the position of buoys that may have drifted due to sea currents. Therefore it is necessary to predict and optimize the drifted-buoy positions in the deploying step. This research introduces a free-drift simulation model using ocean data from the European CMEMS. The simulation model’s predictions are validated by comparing them to actual sea buoy drift tracks, showing a substantial match in averaged drift speed and direction. Using this drift model, we optimize the initial buoy layout and compare the tracking performance between the center hexagonal layout and close track layout. Our results verify that the optimized layout achieves lower tracking errors compared to the other two layout.