A Fusion Positioning System of Long Baseline and Pressure Sensor for Ship and Harbor Inspection ROV

The maintenance of a ship is essential for safe navigation and hence regular surveys are prescribed according to the rule of classification societies. A hull inspection is generally performed by professional divers, but it takes a long time and the efficiency is low in terms of time and cost. In this research, a ROV(Remotely Operated Vehicle) named as SNU-ROV(Seoul National University-ROV) is developed to replace the conventional inspection method. In this system, the ROV is intended to be used for inspecting ship and harbor because harbor inspection is merging as a safety measure against any possible terror actions. In order to increase the efficiency of inspection, the ROV must be able to measure the exact position of damages. SNU-ROV has a positioning system based on LBL(Long Base Line). In shallow water such as harbor, however, LBL has bad DOP(Dilution of Precision) in the depth direction due to the limited depth. Thus LBL only can not locate the exact depth position. To solve the DOP problem, a pressure sensor is introduced to LBL and a complementary filter is attached by using indirect feedback Kalman filter. Thus developed positioning system is verified by simulation and experiment in towing tank.