Geomagnetic field signals have potential for use in underwater navigation and geophysical surveys. To map underwater geomagnetic fields, we propose a method that exploits an autonomous surface vehicle. In our system, a magnetometer is rigidly attached to the vehicle and not towed by a cable, minimizing the system’s size and complexity but requiring a dedicated calibration procedure due to magnetic distortion caused by the vehicle. Conventional 2D methods can be employed for the calibration by assuming the horizontal movement of the magnetometer, whereas the proposed 3D approach can correct for horizontal misalignment of the sensor. Our method does not require a supporting crane system to rotate the vehicle, and calibrates and maps simultaneously by exploiting data obtained from field operation. The proposed method has been verified experimentally in inland waters, generating a magnetic field map of the test area that is of much higher resolution than the public magnetic field data.

Acoustic based localization is essential to operate autonomous robotic systems in underwater environment where the use of sensorial data is limited. This paper proposes a localization method using artificial underwater acoustic sources. The proposed method acquires directional angles of acoustic sources using time difference of arrivals of two hydrophones. For this purpose, a probabilistic approach is used for accurate estimation of the time delay. Then, Gaussian sum filter based SLAM technique is used to localize both acoustic sources and underwater vehicle. It is performed by using bearing of acoustic sources as measurement and inertial sensors as prediction model. The proposed method can handle directional ambiguity of time difference based source localization by generating Gaussian models corresponding to possible locations of both front and back sides. Through these processes, the proposed method can provide reliable localization method for underwater vehicles without any prior information of source locations. The performance of the proposed method is verified by experimental results conducted in a real sea environment.