Today any boat traffic rely on GPS to determine its position at sea. But sometimes information from the system is incorrect, GPS can be jammed, signals from the satellites can be interfered with by other communication equipment, physical obstacles, etc. And submarines cannot usually use the system.

Doctoral student Rickard Karlsson from Linköping University (Sweden) is studying how modern, simulation-based methods of treating signals can be used to monitor and, if necessary, to take over the GPS function on a vessel.
The vessel’s own radar is used to measure the distance to surrounding shores, and this data is compared with a digital sea chart. In a submarine, information from sonar equipment is compared with a digital depth chart. In combination with data about the movement of the vessel, the correct position can be calculated.

The method is based on a mathematical algorithm which is installed as a program in the vessel’s computer system. There is no need for any further hardware to be installed.

Karlsson’s dissertation Particle Filtering for Positioning and Tracking Applications deals with several other uses of the same principle: positioning industrial robots, tracking vehicles from another vehicle to avoid collisions, and tracking boats and ships from an airplane.

Via eurekalert.