Woojae Seong

Estimation of hydrodynamic coefficients for an AUV using nonlinear observers

Hydrodynamic coefficients strongly affect the dynamic performance of an autonomous underwater vehicle. Although these coefficients are generally obtained experimentally such as through the planar-motion-mechanism (PMM) test, the measured values are not completely reliable because of experimental difficulties and errors involved. Another approach by which these coefficients can be obtained is the observer method, in which a model-based estimation algorithm predicts the coefficients. In this paper, the hydrodynamic coefficients are estimated using two nonlinear observers - a sliding mode observer and an extended Kalman filter. Their performances are evaluated by comparing the estimated coefficients obtained from the two observer methods with the values as determined from the PMM test. By using the estimated coefficients, a sliding mode controller is constructed for the diving and steering maneuver. It is demonstrated that the controller with the estimated values maintains the desired depth and path with sufficient accuracy.

Sparse Underwater Acoustic Channel Parameter Estimation Using a Wideband Receiver Array

This paper considers a channel parameter estimation problem using a wideband multichannel receiver array. We estimate the sparse underwater acoustic communication channel parameters, such as time-delay, incidence angle, Doppler frequency, and complex amplitude of impinging multipath components. Multichannel signals from a receiver array are modeled to obtain additional sparsity in the incidence angle and the angle-delay-Doppler-spread function is defined to parameterize the channel. To estimate the principal entries of the angle-delay-Doppler-spread function, we propose a modified version of the orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) algorithm to utilize a redundant dictionary. We introduce a space-alternating scheme which divides the entire parameter search space into smaller subsets to avoid handling large parameter search space. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated using two experimental data: one from large-scale water tank with the capability of generating surface gravity wave and the other from shallow sea water which shows sparse channel structure. Our results demonstrate that the proposed method accurately estimates the time-varying multipath channel parameters with lower residual error than the OMP.

Geoacoustic inversion in time domain using ship of opportunity noise recorded on a horizontal towed array

A time domain geoacoustic inversion method using ship noise received on a towed horizontal array is presented. The received signal, containing ship noise as a source of opportunity, is time-reversed and then back-propagated to the vicinity of the ship. The back-propagated signal is correlated with the modeled signal which is expected to peak at the ships location in case of a good match for the environment. This match is utilized for the geoacoustic parameter inversion. The objective function for this optimization problem is thus defined as the normalized power focused in an area around the source position, using a matched impulse response filter. A hybrid use of global and local search algorithms, i.e., GA and Powells method is applied to the optimization problem. Applications of the proposed inversion method to MAPEX 2000 noise experiment conducted north of the island of Elba show promising results, and it is shown that the time domain inversion takes advantage of dominant frequencies of the source signature automatically.

Depth and heading control for autonomous underwater vehicle using estimated hydrodynamic coefficients

Depth and heading control of an AUV are considered for the predetermined depth and heading angle. The proposed control algorithm is based on a sliding mode control using estimated hydrodynamic coefficients. The hydrodynamic coefficients are estimated with the help of conventional nonlinear observer techniques such as sliding mode observer and extended Kalman filter. By using the estimated coefficients, a sliding mode controller is constructed for the combined diving and steering maneuver. The simulation results of the proposed control system are compared with those of control system with true coefficients. It is demonstrated that the proposed control system makes the system stable and maintains the desired depth and heading angle with sufficient accuracy.

Geoacoustic Inversion Using Backpropagation

This paper presents inversion results of the 2006 Shallow Water Experiment (SW06) data measured on a vertical line array. A low-frequency (100-900 Hz) chirp source was towed along two tracks (circle, straight line) at 30-m depth. For the inversions, a three-step optimization scheme is applied to the data using very fast simulated reannealing (VFSR). The objective function is defined by the energy of the backpropagated signal from the array to the source. At each step, water-column sound-speed profile (SSP), experimental geometry, and geoacoustic parameters are inverted successively. An environmental model is employed consisting of a linear segmented SSP in the water column, a sediment layer, and a half-space. The geometric parameter inversion results show good agreement with in situ measurements. Finally, the estimated geoacoustic parameters show that the experimental site near the vertical line array (VLA) is fairly homogeneous in bottom properties consisting of a 21-m-thick sediment layer with sound speed of around 1600 m/s over a hard basement whose sound speed is approximately 1750 m/s.

Robust matched field-processing algorithm based on feature extraction

In this paper, a new matched field processing (MFP) method is presented. The new method is based on the eigenvector estimation, which is also called feature extraction in pattern recognition. It aims at gaining robustness for the environmental mismatch and simultaneously reducing the time-consuming procedure related to forward modeling. To achieve this goal, common signals (eigenvectors) about the assumed replicas are extracted in the process of randomization over environmental parameters. Discarding these eigenvectors and forming an incoherent subspace spanned by the remaining eigenvectors, the source positions can be estimated correctly by a processor described in this paper. The robustness and the effectiveness of the suggested algorithm will be illustrated through the numerical simulations when there are uncertainties in the environmental parameters of the acoustic waveguide.

High frequency measurements of sound speed and attenuation in water-saturated glass-beads of varying size

Acoustic measurements of p-wave speed and attenuation were made for water-saturated granular medium, consisting of six kinds of glass-beads with mean grain size ranging from 90 to 875 microm, at frequency range between 400 kHz and 1.1 MHz. Sound speed and attenuation were obtained using the inter-receiver broadband estimation technique. The measured data exhibit various frequency dependencies for the different mean grain sizes, consistent with earlier measurements from other researches. These results reveal that the trend of dispersion relation for the sound speed and attenuation, in the high frequency region, is strongly dependent on the range of Rayleigh parameter kd.

Time-domain geoacoustic inversion of high-frequency chirp signal from a simple towed system

An inversion method using a towed system consisting of a source and two receivers is presented. High-frequency chirp signals that have been emitted from the source are received after multiple penetrations and reflections from the shallow water sub-bottom structure and are processed for geoacoustical parameter estimation. The data are processed such that a good resolution and robustness is achieved via matched filtering, which requires information about the source signal. The inversion is formulated as an optimization problem, which maximizes the cost function defined as a normalized correlation between the measured and modeled signals directly in the time domain. The very fast simulated reannealing optimization method is applied to the global search problem. The modeled time signal is obtained using a ray approach. An experiment was carried out in the Mediterranean Sea using a towed source and receiver system. The inversion method is applied to the experimental data and results are found to be consistent with previous frequency-domain analyses using measurements from a towed horizontal array of receivers and measurements on a vertical array.

Emergence of striation patterns in acoustic signals reflected from dynamic surface waves

A striation pattern can emerge in high-frequency acoustic signals interacting with dynamic surface waves. The striation pattern is analyzed using a ray tracing algorithm for both a sinusoidal and a rough surface. With a source or receiver close to the surface, it is found that part of the surface on either side of the specular reflection point can be illuminated by rays, resulting in time-varying later arrivals in channel impulse response that form the striation pattern. In contrast to wave focusing associated with surface wave crests, the striation occurs due to reflection off convex sections around troughs. Simulations with a sinusoidal surface show both an upward (advancing) and downward (retreating) striation patterns that depend on the surface-wave traveling direction and the location of the illuminated area. In addition, the striation length is determined mainly by the depth of the source or receiver, whichever is closer in range to the illuminated region. Even with a rough surface, the striation emerges in both directions. However, broadband (7-13 kHz) simulations in shallow water indicate that the longer striation in one direction is likely pronounced against a quiet noise background, as observed from at-sea experimental data.

Adaptive Surface Interference Suppression for Matched-Mode Source Localization

Localizing a quiet submerged target in the presence of loud interfering surface ships is an important problem for matched-field processing (MFP) in shallow water. Typically, a data-driven interference suppression scheme is employed which requires neither prior information of the interferers location nor filter design optimization and iterative estimation. However, the target and the interferers are usually in motion resulting in spreading or mixing of signal energies in their subspaces, thus making it difficult to determine the interference subspace dimension. In this paper, we exploit the difference in modal amplitudes for surface and submerged sources by eigenanalysis of the modal cross-spectral density matrix (CSDM). Simulation and experimental data results show that the interference subspace can be estimated adaptively and the beam output for the target is enhanced.