Back to results

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Passive estimation of underwater maneuvering targets

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

The initial portion of this thesis examines the problem of tracking a maneuvering target in the 2-dimensional (X,Z) plane, vertical to the ocean floor, using passive time-delay measurements. The target is free to maneuver in velocity and make depth changes at times unknown to the observer. In the past, tracking systems have used Extended Kalman Filters to process the nonlinear measurements, but these have inherent divergence problems. To overcome this, a nonlinear prefilter is added to linearize the measurements and thus allow the use of a conventional Kalman Filter which makes the tracking system more 'robust' and also decouples the depth estimator from the polar range estimator. The depth estimator is discussed in detail here. The latter part of this thesis introduces tracking in the 2-dimensional horizontal (X, Y) plane, parallel to the ocean floor, to observe polar range and target bearing angle. The approach of using a nonlinear prefilter and a standard Kalman Filter is similar to the one described above. Subsequently, the analysis is extended to a Kalman Filter which is not 'matched', i.e. it does not possess any knowledge of the deterministic inputs which cause target motion. This necessitates the use of a bank of Kalman Filters and an adaptive weighting scheme. Test results are included to show that all source maneuvers can be tracked with a relatively high degree of accuracy.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Science
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Electrical Engineering
Department dc:contributor.department
Electrical Engineering
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Year dc:date.issued
1982

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Godiwala, Pankaj M.

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright
Language dc:language.iso
en_US

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Handle dc:identifier.uri
http://hdl.handle.net/10919/80123
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/80123

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
related terms
citation

Godiwala, Pankaj M.. Passive estimation of underwater maneuvering targets. masters thesis, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1982. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/80123