Construction of experimental platform for underwater acoustic sensor networks and analysis of experimental results

Underwater Acoustic Sensor Network (UASN) encounters significant challenges in node localization and target tracking due to mobility and sparse deployment. To address the limitations of numerical simulations, this paper develops a hybrid virtual and physical experimental platform that integrates a controllable wave tank, a high precision camera reference system, and high sensitivity hydrophones. The platform facilitates a thorough performance evaluation of representative methods including node localization algorithms such as SLMP and MP-PSO as well as target tracking algorithms like TASD and ST-BPN. Experimental results verify the platform’s ability to reveal critical real world factors such as hardware processing latency and complex multipath interference which are typically absent in simulations. By providing centimeter level ground truth, this research proves the platform’s value as an essential bridge between theoretical design and practical maritime applications by offering a controllable and reproducible benchmarking environment.