Analysis of Belief Propagation Based Cooperative Localization and Target Tracking Schemes

The target tracking is an fundamental ability for many oceanic applications, such as ocean surveillance, underwater rescue and etc. Due to the good mobility of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), they are the ideal devices to carry out the target tracking. However, their position accuracy severely affect the target tracking performance. Thus, in this paper, aiming at the problem of target tracking using multiple AUVs, we introduce two AUV cooperative localization and target tracking schemes. The two schemes are designed based on belief propagation and carry out the localization and tracking serially and in parallel, respectively. The features and differences of both schemes are compared and analyzed in detail. Moreover, their application prospects in underwater scenarios are discussed and further validated through simulations. As a result, two schemes have their own advantages in different situations and are suitable for multiple-AUV applications.