IMPROVEMENT IN ACCURACY OF DETERMINING A VESSEL’S POSITION WITH THE USE OF NEURAL NETWORKS ANA ROBUST M-ESTIMATION

Abstract

In the 21st century marine navigation has become dominated by satellite positioning systems and automated navigational processes. Today, global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) play a central role in the process of carrying out basic navigational tasks, e.g. determining the coordinates of a vessel’s position at sea. Since satellite systems are being used increasingly more often in everyday life, the signals they send are becoming more and more prone to jamming. Therefore there is a need to search for other positioning systems and methods that would be as accurate and fast as the existing satellite systems. On the other hand, the automation process makes it possible to conduct navigational tasks more quickly. Due to the development of this technology, all kinds of navigation equipment can be used in the process of automating navigation. This also applies to marine radars, which are characterised by a relatively high accuracy that allows them to replace satellite systems in performing classic navigational tasks. By employing M estimation methods that are used in geodesy as well as simple neural networks, a software package can be created that will aid in automating navigation and will provide highly accurate information about a given object’s position at sea by making use of radar in comparative navigation. This paper presents proposals for automating the process of determining a vessel’s position at sea by using comparative navigation methods that are based on simple neural networks and geodetic M-estimation methods.