Fast Extraction of Local Underwater Terrain Features for Underwater Terrain-Aided Navigation

Terrain matching accuracy and real-time performance are affected by local underwater terrain features and structure of matching surface. To solve the extraction problem of local terrain features for underwater terrain-aided navigation (UTAN), real-time data model and selection method of beams are proposed. Then, an improved structure of terrain storage is constructed, and a fast interpolation strategy based on index is proposed, which can greatly improve the terrain interpolation–reconstruction speed. Finally, for the influences of tide, an elimination method of reference depth deviation is proposed, which can reduce the reference depth errors caused by tidal changes. As the simulation test shows, the proposed method can meet the requirements of real-time performance and effectiveness. Furthermore, the extraction time is considerably reduced, which makes the method suitable for the extraction of local terrain features for UTAN.