Acta Geodaetica et Cartographica Sinica ›› 2025, Vol. 54 ›› Issue (5): 831-839.doi: 10.11947/j.AGCS.2025.20230117

• Marine Survey • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Influence of draft depth error of acoustic ray tracing on underwater positioning

Wenzhou SUN1,2,3(), Anmin ZENG1,3, Zhengming QIAO2   

  1. 1.State Key Laboratory of Spatial Reference, Xi'an 710054, China
    2.Office for Establishing Zhangzhou Base, National Ocean Technology Center, Zhangzhou 363107, China
    3.Xi'an Institute of Surveying and Mapping, Xi'an 710054, China
  • Received:2023-04-19 Revised:2025-05-06 Online:2025-06-23 Published:2025-06-23
  • About author:SUN Wenzhou (1991—), male, PhD, senior engineer, majors in the theory and methods of ocean geodesy and hydrographic surveying. E-mail: 1519374228@qq.com
  • Supported by:
    The National Natural Science Foundation of China(42388102)

Abstract:

Acoustic underwater positioning technology is an important means of obtaining three-dimensional absolute coordinates of seabed control points. The accuracy of the initial depth calculation for acoustic ray tracing is affected by the draft depth error of the ship-borne transducer. The draft depth error causes corresponding system errors in slant range calculations, thereby affecting the positioning results of seafloor control points. This paper first studies the relationship between draft depth error and acoustic ranging error through the area difference of sound velocity profiles. It analyzes the variation pattern of acoustic ranging error caused by draft depth error with respect to gradients. Secondly, it analyzes the variation patterns of acoustic ranging error caused by draft depth error with respect to depth and initial incident angle under typical deep-sea sound velocity profile structures, as well as their impact on circular track positioning method. Simulation experiments indicate that draft depth errors can lead to centimeter or even decimeter-level ranging errors. Real measured data at a depth of 3000 m shows that draft depth errors cause decimeter-level deviations in vertical solutions, and the larger the radius of circular track, the greater the deviation in the vertical solution.

Key words: seafloor control points, acoustic ranging, acoustic ray tracing, sound velocity profile area difference, ranging systematic errors

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