Underwater position estimation for an underwater vehicle using unscented Kalman filter

Marine researchers need consistent historical and georeferenced data from the marine environment in order to constantly monitor the biological condition of the habitat or to document delicate archeological sites. To overcome the difficulties related to the acquisition of high quantity of worthy data and to the accurate estimation of the position, the development of easy to-use IT tools could certainly help. This article aims to present a tool that can equip different type of underwater vehicles capable of estimating its position during his surveys using its on-board sensors and with the aid of an external buoy. The estimation algorithm is based on the UKF technique and some preliminary simulation results of its performances are presented.