A Novel Neural Network-Based SINS/DVL Integrated Navigation Approach to Deal with DVL Malfunction for Underwater Vehicles

A navigation grade Strapdown Inertial Navigation System (SINS) combined with a Doppler Velocity Log (DVL) is widely used for autonomous navigation of underwater vehicles. Whether the DVL is able to provide continuous velocity measurements is of crucial importance to the integrated navigation precision. Considering that the DVL may fail during the missions, a novel neural network-based SINS/DVL integrated navigation approach is proposed. The nonlinear autoregressive exogenous (NARX) neural network, which is able to provide reliable predictions, is employed. While the DVL is available, the neural network is trained by the body frame velocity and its increment from the SINS and the DVL measurements. Once the DVL fails, the well trained network is able to forecast the velocity which can be used for the subsequent navigation. From the experimental results, it is clearly shown that the neural network is able to provide reliable velocity predictions for about 200 s–300 s during DVL malfunction and hence maintain the short-term accuracy of the integrated navigation.