A Conceptual Architecture for Resilient UUV Navigation in Long Baseline (LBL) and Ultra-Short Baseline (USBL) Degraded Environments

Dharani Jaganathan

Abstract


Underwater navigation for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) is challenged by the absence of GPS signals and the variable reliability of acoustic positioning systems such as Long-Baseline (LBL) and Ultra-Short Baseline (USBL). This paper proposes a resilient navigation architecture that integrates inertial navigation systems (INS), Doppler velocity logs (DVL), acoustic ranging, and terrain-relative navigation into a hierarchical fusion framework. The architecture introduces “Sensor Trust Modulation,” dynamically adjusting the confidence in each sensor based on environmental conditions and signal quality. A fault detection and isolation (FDI) layer is incorporated to identify sensor anomalies and mitigate their impact on state estimation. Theoretical foundations for observability analysis in multi-sensor fusion systems are presented, emphasizing the importance of persistent excitation and redundancy. This conceptual framework aims to maintain accurate and robust navigation in challenging underwater environments, such as cluttered seabeds or noisy acoustic channels, enabling reliable autonomous operation for scientific, commercial, and defense applications.

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