A Variational Bayesian-Based Simultaneous Localization and Mapping Method for Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Navigation

Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) is a well-known solution for mapping and realizing autonomous navigation of an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) in unknown underwater environments. However, the inaccurate time-varying observation noise will cause filtering divergence and reduce the accuracy of localization and feature estimation. In this paper, VB-AUFastSLAM based on the unscented-FastSLAM (UFastSLAM) and the Variational Bayesian (VB) is proposed. The UFastSLAM combines unscented particle filter (UPF) and unscented Kalman filter (UKF) to estimate the AUV poses and features. In addition, to resist the unknown time-varying observation noise, the method of Variational Bayesian learning is introduced into the SLAM framework. Firstly, the VB method is used to estimate the joint posterior probability of the AUV path and observation noise. The Inverse-Gamma distribution is used to model the observation noise and real-time noise parameters estimation is performed to improve the AUV localization accuracy. Secondly, VB is reused to estimate the noise parameters in the feature update stage to enhance the performance of the feature estimation. The proposed algorithms are first validated in an open-source simulation environment. Then, an AUV SLAM system based on the Inertial Navigation System (INS), Doppler Velocity Log (DVL), and single-beam Sonar are also built to verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms in the marine environment. The accuracy of the proposed methods can reach 0.742% and 0.776% of the range, respectively, which is much better than 1.825% and 1.397% of the traditional methods.