Positioning Accuracy of a Swarm of Buoys as Sources for Sub-Sea Navigation Systems

The increasing interest in underwater operations calls for the capability to accurately, continuously and effectively locate assets below the sea surface. Such a difficult task could be helped by a local infrastructure based on a swarm of floating buoys transmitting acoustic waves. However, any error in buoys’ positioning would be reflected in the system performance. The paper deals with the adoption of the novel High Accuracy Service provided by the European GNSS Galileo to conveniently locate the buoys belonging to the cluster. Preliminary simulations for the dynamics of the swarm of floating buoys are presented, and the positive effect of the (more than) one-order of magnitude improvement in buoys’ positioning, and indeed in the underwater asset location granted by HAS is considered. Prototyping of a sample buoy is also shortly discussed.