-

Oceans Europe 2005

Maximum Likelihood Estimates of a Spread-Spectrum Source
Position using a Tetrahedral Ultra-Short Baseline Array
Pierre-Philippe J. Beaujean Asif I. Mohamed Raphael Warin
Florida Atlantic University Florida Atlantic University 27, rue du petit Ennelikres
101 North Beach Road 101 North Beach Road 597 10 Avelin
Dania, FL 33004, USA Dania, FL 33004, USA France
pbeaujeaaseatech. fau.edu amoham@seatech.fau.edu rwarin@hotmail.com

Absfrucf - An Ultra Short Baseline acoustic simulated under various types of SNR, pulses and number
positioning system has been made compatible with the of pulses, followed with experimental results obtained in a
FAU Dual Purpose Acoustic Modem network to provide calibration tank. Model and experiments confirm that the
azimuth and elevation of modem-type sources. The accuracy of this system improves with the number of pulses
acoustic antenna is composed of four transducers and the SNR, and that a high positioning accuracy can be
arranged as a tetrahedron. The position estimation is achieved using the proposed method.
performed using the detection sequence of each message
transmitted by the modem source. This spread-
spectrum detection sequence is B series of frequency- 11. USBL ARRAY PROCESSTNG
hopped pulses. The estimation technique is based on the
maximum-likelihood estimation technique originally A. Bearing Estimation
described by Quazi and Lerro. A simulation has been
implemented and experiments have been performed in a
calibration tank specifically built for this purpose.
Model and experiments confirm that the accuracy of
T' D

this system improves with the number of pulses and the

signal-to-noise ratio, and that a high positioning
accuracy can be achieved using the proposed method.
This work is sponsored in part by the OfEce of Naval
Research, Code # ONR 3210M,Dr. Tom Swean.

I. INTRODUCTION
Ultra Short Baseline (USBL) acoustic positioning
systems are well-suited for Autonomous Underwater
Vehicles (AVV) because of their small space requirement. i= I X
This type of positioning system is based on the estimation A B
of the relative phases between signals measured by a set of Fig. 1. Tetrahedral baseline configuration.
transducers, spaced at a half-wavelength distance kom one
another. Reverberation may cause major signal distorsion The acoustic antenna is composed of four transducers
the acoustic signals received by the array and Iimit the (A-D) arranged as a tetrahedron (Fig. 1). Three of the four
accuracy of time delay estimation during position transducers form three coplanar baselines of 2.5 cm spacing
estimation [3]. Another limiting factor is the ambient noise ( i = 1,2,3) and three non-coplanar baselines (i = 4,5,6) of
present in shallow and deep waters [4], and generated by 2.4 cm spacing (Fig.1). The spacing is the center-to-center
waves, rain, boat t&ic and biological life. distance between two receivers. The length of each
A USBL acoustic positioning system has been made baseline (numbered nb) is slightly less than half the shortest
compatible with the Dual Purpose Acoustic Modem (FAU-
wavelength A,, contained in the detection sequence,
DPAM) network [l] to provide the azimuth and elevation
of modem-type.sources. The targeted accuracy is of 0.3"
r m s for both angles under realistic shallow water Lo <-. L
2
operations. This position estimation is performed using the
The incoming acoustic waves a x assumed to be plane.
detection sequence of each message transmitted by each
modem source. The spread-spectrum detection sequence is The bearing angle measured at the nbth baseline for the
a series of frequency-hopped pulses. The estimation th
technique is based on the maximum-likelihood estimation n, pulse is calculated from the phase difference a
technique originally described by Quazi and Lerro [5]. between the signals recorded at each receiver,
Synchronous GPS-based time-of-travel estimation is used
to estimate the range kom the sowcc to the m a y [7].
Alternately, the positioning unit can interrogate each
modem, in which case the range is estimated using the two-
way travel time.
This article focuses on the azimuth and elevation angle
estimation using maximum-likelihood detection and c represents the speed of sound. With N, =6
kequency-hopped spread-spectrum sequences. After a baselines far the tetrahedral USBL array and N , = 8
review of the estimation method, the slant range error is

0-7803-9103-9/05/$20.0002005IEEE I42
Authorized licensed use limited to: NORTHWESTERN POLYTECHNICAL UNIVERSITY. Downloaded on September 13,2021 at 09:18:00 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 pulses, a total of 48 distinct bearing angles can be
calculated. The next step is to determine the azimuth ea
and elevation va of the source with respect to the USBL
m a y h r n these 48 bearing angles (Fig. 2).

t'
Equation (3.2) assumes that the length Lo,nbof each
baseline is known. For each pulse, f is the carrier
"f
hquency, W is the bandwidth, c is the speed of sound, T is
the record length and SNR is the signal-to-noise ratio.
"1
fa
Onbln, is the bearing angle estimated at the nb baseline

with the nf th pulse.

B. Variance l%reshold
Fig. 2. Azimuth and elevation of a source.
Only a limited number of estimated bearings is
retained, based OII a threshold applied to the variance of
B. Spread-SpectrumSignaling each estimate. The variance threshold is the mean of the
bearing variance. Bearing angles with variances larger than
Within the spread-spectnun acoustic modem network the mean variance are placed in the p vector and are not
,
[ 11, the USBL system uses up to N - g pulses sent at the mJ
i-
included in the log-likelihood summation presented in
beginning of each message transmission. These pulses use section IKC.
different h.que.ncy bands between 16 kHz and 28 kHz.
The time-varying spectrum of the detection sequence is C. Log-Likelihood Function
shown in Fig. 3.
T h e probability that the set of selected bearing angles
181be representativeof the true azimuth Q0 and elevation
Yois [71.

_"
moo
I

moo 16200 IWU I E ~ O ( ~i s m 21000 zzzoo xan 21810 m1000a & m q

Mr)
Fig. 3. Time-frequency plot of the detectionsequence.

III. AZIMUTH AND ELEVATION CALCULATION

on,, is the true bearing angle for each baseline. The
Azimuth and elevation of the transmitter with respect to
the USBL are estimated using an adaptation of the method log-likelihood function is the natural logarithm of
by Quazi and h o {SI, based on the maximization of the
log-likelrhood fimction of estimating the proper source
Pr@l I (@ 0 y o
3 11.
directions [ 6 ] .

A. Variance of the Bearing Estimate

We first assume that the 48 bearing angles estimates are

Gaussian random variables,
The estimated azimuth and elevation pair with the
highest probability of being the true azimuth and true
elevation correspondsto the maximum of the log-likelihood
function. The downhill sirrrplex method is used to find this
The bias has been shown to be negligible in maximum [SI. However, the log-likelihood function m a y
also have local maxima. Since the reliability of this search
simulationsand is dropped fiom this point forward [7]. T h e
method is contingent upon the initial starting region for
variance for the bearing angles are given by [5]
three search points, it is imperative that these search points
be in the vicinity of the true maxi" of the log-likelihood
function. A first estimate of the azimuth and elevation is

143
Authorized licensed use limited to: NORTHWESTERN POLYTECHNICAL UNIVERSITY. Downloaded on September 13,2021 at 09:18:00 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 computed using the three bearing angles with the lowest
variance Corresponding to three non-coplanar baselines.
Three points are selected around the rough estimate of the
azimuth and elevation and used in the maximum search.
IV.PERFORMANCE ESTIMATION
A. Standard Dariation of rhe Angle Estimates
Let's denote N, as the total number of estimation
attempts for a given azimuth and a given elevation, T h e
standard deviation of the estimated azimuth is given by
equation (4. l), and the standard deviation of the estimated
elevation is given by (4.2),
= 1 n, =1
N,- 1 . (4.2)
#ut,na,ne and yesr,n,,ne are the estimated
azimuth and elevation for the n: true source azimuth, the
n: true s o m e elevation, and the n: test at this position.
- -
#at,,, ,ne and vest,na ,ne represent the estimate of the
azimuth and elevation averaged over N , measurements.
The mean of d l the estimated standard deviations for
azimuth and elevation are given by equations (4.3) and
(4.4) respectively,
nr =1
C. Position Error Estimation and Evahation
The positioning accuracy of USBL systems is typically
given in terms of slant range error, which represents the
relative error between the estimated source location and the
true source location. In Cartesian coordinates, the source
location for a true azimuth h ,a true elevation vo and a
slant range r is given by
Authorized licensed use limited to: NORTHWESTERN POLYTECHNICAL UNIVERSITY. Downloaded on September 13,2021 at 09:18:00 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
Equation (4.7) shows the difference between the true
and estimated source positions for the v,'~test,
The slant range error is the position error relative to the
range,
where is the slant m g e between source and receiver.
Y
Eps,no,n,,n,
represents the relative position error for a
single trial for a single azimuth-elevation pair. The mean
position error for a single azimuth-elevation pair over the
entire set of N, trials is given by
Finally, the position error averaged over every tested
position over N , N , trials is given by
nr =I
V. SIMULATION
The slant range error i s simulated as a function of the
true azimuth #,, and true elevation yo for various SNR,
number of pulses, pulse carrier fiequencies, bandwidth and
duration. The number of tests N, for each true azimuth
and elevation pair is set to 50. For each test, a set of
bearing estimates 161 is created using a Gaussian random
generator, following (3.1), and the corresponding values
#=, and vat are obtained at the output of the maximum-
likelihood estimator,
A. Signal-to-Noise Ratio
The S N R is an important parameter of the variance of
each bearing estimate. As the SNR increases, the variance
of a bearing angle for a particular baseline and pulse
hquency decreases. As a result of the increased SNR, the
standard deviation of the bearing angles close to 0' or 180'
decreases. Thus, witb smaller variances, the log-likelihood
fbction shows peaks with steeper gradients. Therefore, the
true maximum of the log-likelihood function is more likely
to be found if the S N R increases, assuming that the other
parameters are kept constant. Figure 4 shows the slant
range estimate for an SNR of 32 dB. All the variance
 parameters are held constant except for SNR. Eight pulses
are used with a bandwidth of 1273 Hz,and a detection time
of 0.62 milliseconds. Overall, the Simulated mem position
error E,, is 1.336% for an SNR of 22 dB, 0.71% for an
SNR of 27 dB and 0.39% for an S N R of 32 dB,
respectively.
Means of Source Position Enof?.
milliseconds. f i e resulting overall position errors are
0.43%, 0.390/0,0.36%,and 0.33% respectively.
4) Number of Pulses in the Detection Sequence
Simulations shows that, as the number of pulses
decreases fiom 8 down to 2 in steps of 2, the overall
position error is 0.39%, O M % , 0.56% and 0.80%
respectively. All other parameters are kept constant, with
K = 1273 Hz, T = 0.62 milliseconds and an S N R of 27 dB,
OveralI, the mean position error increases as the number of
pulses in the detection sequence decreases, while the other
parameters are kept constant [7l.

VI. EXPERTMENT

A. Setup

An acoustic tank (Fig. 5 ) has been designed and built

Elevation
Fig. 4. Simulated mean position error using 8 pulses at 32 dB
SNR.
B. DefectionSequence
The impact of carrier ftequency, time duration,
bandwidth and number of pulses on EF
is studied in this
section.
I ) Pulse Carrier Frequenq
The central fkquencies of the detection pulses are
24600, 21000, 17400, 27000, 23400, 19800, I6200 and
25800 &. As the half-wavelength of the pulse transmitted
at 27 kHz is only slightly shorter than a baseline, we would
expect that the slant range error would increase if the carrier
kequency of each pulse is down-shifted. Simulations
confvm this statement. First, the mean position error is
computed using the original pulse kequencies. A second
and third set uses pulse frequencies shifted down by 1 lcHz
and 2 kHz, respectively. Keeping the other parameters
constant, the simulated average position error is 0.39%,
0.40% and 0.41% respectively.
specifically for the testing and calibration of the USBL
system. The tank is 1.6 m by 1.6 m by 1.8 m tall. These
dimensions allow for a reverberation-flee time T of 0.5
milliseconds if the USBL,&ay is placed in the middle of
the tank, and if the source is placed against the middle of a
wall slightly below the USBL array. The internal
components of the array are shown in Fig. 6.
The calibration is achieved by changing the pitch and
roll of the USBL m y . T h e rotation of the array is
performed by two stepper motors equipped with encoder
feedback to control accurately the a m y orientation. A tilt
sensor is installed in a pressure housing (Fig. 7) just above
the USBL array to provide redundancy in the anay pitch
estimation. The pressure vessel containing the sensor is oil-
filled, and the articulated arms are made of plastic to
minimize acoustic reflections.
The signals are acquired and processed on an embedded
FAU-DPAMDSP board, equipped with a TMS32OC54-16
fvced point processor. The signal is transmitted with a
second FAU-DPAM board. The control of the stepper
motors and data collection is performed by a standard PC.
The experimental process i s r l l y automated.

2) Pulse Bandwidth

Simulation results show that small variations of the

pulse bandwidth have little impact upon the overall position
error. The overall position error ranges &om 0.3922% to
0.3911% when the frequency bandwidth changes h m 1273
Hz down to 773 Hz. This is two orders of magnitude lower
than the fluctuations due to a drop in S N R of 5 dB. Fig. 5. Test setup.

3) Pulse Duration

Equation (3.2) shows that, as the record duration T

increases, the variance of each bearing estimate decreases.
In tum, the overall position error decreases as T increases.
In practice however, the record duration must be short
enough so that each signal remains interference-he. In the
present case, the record length varies from 0.52
milliseconds to 0.82 milliseconds in steps of 0.1

I 45
Authorized licensed use limited to: NORTHWESTERN POLYTECHNICAL UNIVERSITY. Downloaded on September 13,2021 at 09:18:00 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 Fig. 6 . USBL array.
Fig. 7. USBL and tilt sensor pressure housing
B. Array Measurements
A set of experimental resdts is presented, which
represents a limited number o f azimutb and elevation
estimated with the USBL array. A preliminary calibration
of the array is performed at very high SNR, to make up for
the fabrication inaccuracy of each baseline.
The range of tested angles spans from 120” to 300” in
azimuth and 70 to 60’ in elevation. For each position, Nt =
5 transmissions are acquired and processed. The S N R is 32
dB. Fig. 8 shows the USBL estimate of both azimuth and
eIevation for each record, and the azimuth and elevation as
measured by the articulated arm The slant error range i s
shown in Fig. 9. The slant range error lies in the range of
2.0% to 3.0%ofthe range in most cases.
TNe ‘IS. calibrated astimalion of azimuih and slwation
Eleration (deg)
Fig. 8. True Y S . calibrated estimation of azimuth and elevation for
each record.
146
Authorized licensed use limited to: NORTHWESTERN POLYTECHNICAL UNIVERSITY. Downloaded on September 13,2021 at 09:18:00 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Eleretan [&g]
Pig. 9. Slant Error vs. azimuth and elevation.
W. CONCLUSION
Model and experiments confirm that the accuracy of
this system improves with the number of pulses and the
SNR, and that a high positioning accuracy can be achieved
using the proposed method. The next logical step is the
construction of more detailed mean error maps for lower
SNR. Overall, the results obtained indicate that
miniaturized USBL arrays can provide accurate estimate of
an acoustic source transmitting spread-spectrum sequences
between 16 kHz and 28 ICHZ.
References
[I] P.P.J. Beaujean and E.P. Bernault, “A New Multi-
Channel Spatial Diversity Technique for Long Range
Acoustic Communications in Shflow Water”, MTSmEEE
Oceans’O3 Proc., San Diego, CA, Sept. 2003.
[Z] P.H. Milne, Underwafer Acoustic Positioning
$stem, December 1983.
[3] RL. Peterson, RE. Ziemer, D.E. Bo&,
Infroduction fo Spread Specirum Communications,
Prentice-Hall, 1995.
[4] K Vickery, “Acoustic Positioning Systems, a
Practical Overview of Current Systems”, IEEE,
Proceedings of 1998 Workshop on Autonomous
Underwater Vehicle, pp.5-7,20-21 August 1998.
[SI A.H. Quazi, D.T.Lerro,“Passive localization using
time delay estimates with sensor positional errors”, J.
Acoust. Soc. Am., Vol. 78, November 1985.
[6] S.Haykin, Adoptive Filter DieoV, Second Edition,
Prentice-Hall Intemational Editions, 1991.
[7] R Warin, “Maximum Likelihood Estimates of
Azimuth and Elevation for a Frequency-Hopped Active
Source using a Tetrahedra! Ultra Short Baseline”, M.S.
Thesis Publication, Dept. of Ocean Engineering, Florida
Atlantic University, May 2004.
[SI W.H. Press, B.P. Flannery, S.A. Teukolsky, W.T.
Vetterling, Numerical Recipes in C,pp.290-328, Cambridge
University Press, 1988.