Cooperative Localization for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles -- a comprehensive review

TL;DR

This comprehensive review discusses the importance, challenges, and recent advances in cooperative localization techniques for autonomous underwater vehicles, emphasizing acoustic communication and environmental constraints.

Contribution

It provides a detailed categorization and qualitative overview of existing cooperative localization methods and algorithms used in underwater environments.

Findings

Categorization of cooperative localization approaches

Review of algorithms addressing underwater acoustic challenges

Discussion of future research directions

Abstract

Cooperative localization is an important technique in environments devoid of GPS-based localization, more so in underwater scenarios, where none of the terrestrial localization techniques based on radio frequency or optics are suitable due to severe attenuation. Given the large swaths of oceans and seas where autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) operate, traditional acoustic positioning systems fall short on many counts. Cooperative localization (CL), which involves sharing mutual information amongst the vehicles, has thus emerged as a viable option in the past decade. This paper assimilates the research carried out in AUV cooperative localization and presents a qualitative overview. The cooperative localization approaches are categorized by their cooperation and localization strategies, while the algorithms employed are reviewed on the various challenges posed by the underwater acoustic channel and environment. Furthermore, existing problems and future scope in the domain of underwater cooperative localization are discussed.