Frogman self-navigation method based on virtual transponder array and dead reckoning

Using single transponder ranging (STR) information to aid positioning satisfies the needs of frogman autonomous positioning in waters emergency rescue, where miniaturized and low-cost devices are preferred. On this basis, a frogman self-navigation method based on virtual transponder array (VTA) and dead reckoning (DR) is proposed in this article, to solve the problem that calculation results of DR still accumulate with time when STR information is taken as the external measurement. In the proposed method, firstly, by constructing the VTA with depth information constraint, frogman autonomous positioning under the condition of single transponder configuration is realized. Then, to combine the characteristics that DR positioning data is smooth and short-term stable, and that VTA positioning error is not cumulative, the DR navigation system is used to describe frogman’s motion law, the frogman positioning coordinates that calculated by VTA are taken as external measurement and the Kalman filter is designed, which solves the problem of DR accumulated errors. Compared to traditional STR-DR method, the proposed VTA-DR method further improves the accuracy and stability of frogman navigation and positioning. Finally, based on the high-precision three-dimensional motion capture system, the semi-physical simulation experimental environment is built to verify the proposed method. The experimental results under different tracks indicate that the average total location error of VTA-DR method is 0.149m, which is reduced by 53.5% compared with STR-DR method. The proposed VTA-DR method can better suppress the accumulation of positioning errors and has better positioning accuracy and robustness.