f Cable positioning using compasses, tailbuoys, and acoustic devices

The combination of acoustic front end measurements, cable compass readings, active tailbuoy positions, and inter-cable acoustic ranges has been exploited in a sparse-net, least-squares solution to decrease the overall uncertainty in cable receiver position estimates. Comparisons among solutions derived from various combinations of sensors demonstrate that acoustic and tailbuoy measurements effectively supplement the compass data. We estimate that the maximum uncertainty in cable receiver positions for a system employing all of the above sensors in a sparse-net solution with good Syledis control is about 12 m.