Environmentally Adaptive and Through-the-Sensor Efforts at NRL
Abstract
The Naval Research Laboratory's Marine Geosciences Division is conducting research in Through-The-Sensor and Environmentally Adaptive Sensor Techniques. NRL's AutoSurveyTM system is an environmentally adaptive technique developed to minimize survey time in an area while obtaining the desired seafloor coverage. The effective swath of a multibeam survey system depends on water depth, sound velocity conditions, seafloor properties, and sensor settings. AutoSurvey monitors these conditions and using intelligent navigation adjusts ship track accordingly to achieve a desired swath overlap. The real-time system processes the edge of good swath data at the end of each survey line and lays down the next survey line on the fly based on actual coverage. As a result excessive overlap in deep areas and data gaps in shoal areas are avoided. AutoSurvey timesavings are slope dependent. Results from actual surveys have demonstrated timesavings of 10% with as little as loot slope, and up to 60% for rugged terrain. AutoSurvey has been transitioned to the Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO) for use on their T-AGS vessels. Additionally NRL has worked with ARL/UT in the development of a real- time situational awareness tool for the SQQ-32 mine hunting sonar. In this environmentally adaptive technique, real-time reverberation statistics from the SQQ-32 end target signal computations involving the sound speed profile are used to compute sonar detection performance. The Sonar Performance Monitoring System displays detection performance as a function of bearing and range in four colors, good to poor, responsive to changing environmental conditions and the sonar configuration. Through-The-Sensor (TTS) concepts use fleet assets to collect tactical environmental data that can be used to refresh the environmental picture. NRL's Acoustic Seafloor Classification System (ASCS) uses inversion and signal processing techniques to determine acoustic impedance and seafloor properties.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2003
- Accession Number
- ADA417525
Entities
People
- Brian S. Bourgeois
- Dale Bibee
- Don Walter
- Mike Harris
- Will Avera
Organizations
- United States Naval Research Laboratory