A real-time array calibration method for underwater acoustic flexible sensor array

To solve the precise passive ranging problem of underwater acoustic localization systems, we design a large aperture flexible sensor array whose sensors are deployed without rigid connections. We propose a novel real-time array calibration method to estimate the 3-D coordinates of the sensors. Spherical interpolation estimator is used to estimate the range of the acoustic source. The impact of the estimation errors in time-delay and sensor coordinates on the spherical interpolation range estimator is analyzed via computer simulations. By comparing the passive acoustic ranging results from sea trials with the GPS measurement data, we show that the proposed method can calibrate the flexible array in real time more accurately and estimate the underwater acoustic source range precisely.