Article A Combined Ray Tracing Method for Improving the Precision of the USBL Positioning System in Smart Ocean Jian Li 1,2, Qi Gu 1, Ying Chen 3, Guiqing Sun 3, and Haocai Huang 3,* 1 Department of IOT Engineering, Hohai University, Changzhou 213022, China;
[email protected] (J.L.);
[email protected] (Q.G.) 2 State Key Laboratory of Acoustics, Institute of Acoustics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China 3 Ocean College, Zhejiang University, Zhoushan 316021, China;
[email protected] (Y.C.);
[email protected] (G.S.) * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +86-136-1651-8963 Received: 31 August 2018; Accepted: 19 October 2018; Published: 22 October 2018 Abstract: The ultra-short baseline positioning system (USBL) has the advantages of flexible application and easy installation, and it plays an extremely important role in the underwater positioning and communication. The error of the USBL in underwater positioning is mainly caused by a ranging error due to ray tracing, a phase difference error of the USBL, and acoustic noise in the underwater communication. Most of these errors are related to the changes in the sound speed during its propagation through the ocean. Therefore, when using the USBL for underwater detection, it is necessary to correct the sound speed profile in the detection area and optimize the ray tracing. Taking into account the actual conditions, this paper aims at correcting the model of underwater sound speed propagation and improving the tracking method of sound lines when the marine environment in the shallow sea area changes. This paper proposes a combined ray tracing method that can adaptively determine whether to use the constant sound speed ray tracing method or the equal gradient ray tracing method.