Target tracking using seabed based passive acoustic arrays
Abstract
Passive sonar systems are a key sensor type for anti-submarine warfare, used to detect acoustic energy emit-ted by surface or subsurface sources. These systems typically provide bearing detections from targets that are loud enough to be detected. Over time, these bearing detections can be associated and fused to generate a track on a target, provided observability criteria are met (usually by manoeuvring the sensor, or having multiple sensors in contact with the target).
In this paper, we consider an experimental passive acoustic seabed array sensor system consisting of three line arrays of hydrophones deployed on the sea floor. We use detections from this system to explore the challenges involved with tracking targets using passive seabed array systems. A tracker has been developed using the Cu-bature Kalman filter for estimation with global nearest neighbour data association. This tracker has been applied to two datasets collected using the experimental seabed array system.