A Reliable Omnidirectional Acoustic Guidance Method for AUV Recovery and Homing

ABSTRACT A single‐beacon, ranging‐based acoustic guidance method is proposed to ensure reliable, rapid, and omnidirectional homing guidance for the recovery of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). To address the navigation system deviations caused by prolonged underwater operations of both the AUV and the mothership, the method first unifies their navigation datums. It then uses limited moving target information and ranging data to estimate the position of the moving target, enabling effective AUV recovery and homing guidance. This method is theoretically applicable across a wide range of distances—from tens of meters to several kilometers—and is well‐suited for autonomous homing. It was adopted for its ability to overcome the key limitations of traditional ultrashort baseline systems, which are constrained by non‐omnidirectional localization and susceptibility to positional errors resulting from relative positioning between the AUV and the mothership. Results from trials at the Danjiangkou Reservoir demonstrate, for the first time, that an AUV can be accurately guided to the vicinity of the mothership using measurement data from a single acoustic communication device. To evaluate the adaptability of the proposed acoustic guidance algorithm under large initial position errors, 14 field experiments were conducted with the mothership operating under both dynamic positioning (DP) and moving conditions. The results showed that homing deviation was consistently maintained within 8 m, with best‐case values of 2.6 m (DP) and 3.5 m (moving), and corresponding average deviations of 5.8 and 6.5 m. These findings confirm the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed method under challenging initial deviation scenarios.