Sonar SLAM

Sonar SLAM exploits sea floor structure to improve unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) localization accuracy relative to dead-reckoning-based navigation. The terrain-aided navigation (TAN) capability enabled by Sonar SLAM is especially valuable in GPS-denied environments, where navigation typically involves some form of dead reckoning based on vehicle odometry data and is limited by local currents as well as other factors. By exploiting the sea floor structure, PSI’s Sonar SLAM approach improves UUV localization accuracy relative to dead-reckoning-based navigation without significantly increasing vehicle size, weight, power or cost.

Area survey for mine-like objects and mine neutralization are currently conducted using a multiple sortie, multiple pass approach. Sonar SLAM supports In-Stride SSDTE by reducing UUV localization error and enabling terrain-aided navigation in GPS-denied environments; specifically, Sonar SLAM will reduce time to neutralize and increase the probability of mine neutralization. In-Stride SSDTE is anticipated to increase area survey rate by ~10x relative to current capability.