Automatic Estimation of Boresight Angles Between IMU and Multi-Beam Echo Sounder Sytems

Nowadays, the boresight calibration between IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) and MBES (Multi-Beam Echo Sounder) systems is achieved by the patch-test procedure which estimates the three boresight angles: roll, pitch and yaw. That procedure consists in two steps. The first one is the selection of an overlapping area. That selection is done thanks to the experience of a surveyor. The second step evaluates the roll, pitch and yaw angles separately by a method which tries a subset of possible angles. For theses possible angles, the discrepancy between digital terrain models (one DTM by survey line) is calculated in the previous selected area and the minimum is assumed to be the “optimal” solution. This paper presents some preleminary results from a research project between FUGRO, ENSTA Bretagne and CIDCO. This project aim is to design new methods in the calibration topic. These procedures use multi-dimensional optimization concepts in order to provide statistical analysis which should appear in any calibration report.