Abstract

Accurate time synchronization of the nodes of digital underwater acoustic (UWA) networks is necessary for the effective use of information obtained from various kinds of underwater sensors over a vast water area. The sensors of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) are widely used to address new challenges. One of them is time synchronization of sensors on mobile carriers, as well as synchronization of the clocks on mobile nodes of UWA networks, for example, teams of AUVs that perform coordinated and/or cooperated operations. The paper presents theresults of the experiments on using UWA modems for AUV positioning, namely, UWA modems with chip-scale atomic clocks (CSAC) that allow accurate measurements of delays in propagation of UWA signals and, thus, accurate estimation of ranges to their georeferenced sources. In addition, the accuracy of CSAC operation in various situations as well as positioning accuracy of AUVs having UWA modems with integrated CSACs are analyzed based on the experimental results. Also given are practical recommendations on how to “discipline” (steer) CSACs and provide their phase synchronization with a source of timekeeping signals.

中文翻译：

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具有同步芯片级原子钟的水下声调制解调器，可用于AUV水下定位的可扩展任务

摘要

数字水下声波（UWA）网络的节点的准确时间同步对于有效利用从广阔水域中各种水下传感器获得的信息是必要的。自主水下航行器（AUV）的传感器被广泛用于应对新挑战。其中之一是移动运营商上的传感器的时间同步，以及UWA网络（例如，执行协调和/或协作操作的AUV组）的移动节点上的时钟同步。本文介绍了使用UWA调制解调器进行AUV定位的实验结果，即带有芯片级原子钟（CSAC）的UWA调制解调器，该调制解调器可以精确测量UWA信号传播的延迟，从而准确估计其地理参考范围资料来源。此外，根据实验结果，分析了CSAC在各种情况下的工作精度以及具有UWA调制解调器并集成CSAC的AUV的定位精度。还给出了有关如何“指导”（操纵）CSAC并提供其与计时信号源的相位同步的实用建议。