A Hybrid UKF–ST-Graph Transformer Framework for Cooperative Localization in Ship Ad-Hoc Networks
Abstract
In a sea environment, the localization of ships is very important for traffic management. The Automatic Identification System (AIS) dataset is widely used to get information about ships. This paper proposed a hybrid localization framework for Ship Ad Hoc Networks (SANETs) using the AIS dataset. This study integrates an Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) with a Spatio-Temporal Graph Transformer (ST-GT) built on SANETs to provide cooperative localization. First, UKF utilizes raw AIS data to get initial position estimates for ships. Then, a SANET based on spatial proximity is constructed to form features such as node degree and local connectivity. These features are used by the ST-GT model to obtain temporal motion patterns and inter-vessel interactions to enhance that initial position. The suggested framework outperforms the standalone UKF in experimental results on real AIS datasets. The localization errors under sparse and noisy environments are decreased by using this framework. The result shows the effectiveness of combining physical motion models with deep learning through SANETs for enhanced maritime localization.
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Ethical Statement
References
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Details
Primary Language
English
Subjects
Artificial Intelligence (Other)
Journal Section
Research Article
Publication Date
September 30, 2026
Submission Date
January 27, 2026
Acceptance Date
June 22, 2026
Published in Issue
Year 2026 Volume: 9 Number: 4