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US 11,079,490 B2Granted
Multimission and multispectral sonar
AssigneeR2Sonic, LLC
InventorsJens Steenstrup, Christopher Tiemann, Mark Chun, Kirk Hobart
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A survey system including a multibeam echo sounder having a single projector array and a single hydrophone array constructs a multi-signal message and deconstructs a corresponding multi-signal echo to substantially simultaneously perform multiple survey missions.
Claims29
A sonar survey system with a multibeam echo sounder for installation on a water going vehicle, the survey system for performing multiple measurement functions or missions per multifrequency ensonification, the survey system comprising:
- a transmitter for 1) generating N≥2 different waveforms, each of the waveforms used for a separate mission, in plural non-overlapping frequency bands, 2) processing these waveforms in respective beamformers, and 3) summing the beamformer outputs into a single multifunction transmit waveform that simultaneously drives a plurality of S amplifiers;
- S projectors driven by the S amplifiers for ensonifying an area of a waterbody bottom and a multitude of scattering centers therein;
- a receiver that includes 1) a hardware block for processing T hydrophone signals in T hardware pipelines each including an amplifier, anti-aliasing filter, and analog-to-digital converter, 2) a software block for processing each of T hardware pipeline output signals in N software pipelines each including a mixer, a bandpass filter, a decimator, and a matched filter and 3) a beamformer block for processing (T×N) software pipeline outputs in N beamformers;
- the receiver for use with a plurality of T hydrophones that receive echoes from the ensonified waterbody bottom;
- and,
- the projectors in a first array orthogonal to the hydrophones in a second array such that a Mills cross is formed and a projector array transmit beam intersects multiple hydrophone array receive beams;
- wherein a first of the frequency bands having a first center frequency enables a first mission and a second of the frequency bands having a second center frequency enables a second mission, the first mission frequency band being widely spaced apart from the second mission frequency band such that the survey system determines one or more frequency dependent characteristics of the ensonified scattering centers.
4 more elements
A sonar survey method for performing multiple different survey measurement functions or missions per ensonification, the method comprising the steps of:
- providing a multibeam echo sounder system installed on a water going vehicle, the system including a transmitter, a receiver, S projectors in a projector array, and T hydrophones in a hydrophone array;
- arranging the two arrays in two lines forming a Mills cross that provides a projector array transmit beam that intersects multiple hydrophone array receive beams;
- the transmitter generating an ensonifying waveform by operations including summing N≥2 waveforms, each waveform in a non-overlapping frequency band and for conducting a single mission;
- simultaneously driving the S projectors in the projector array with the ensonifying waveform to simultaneously ensonify an area of a waterbody bottom and a multitude of scattering centers therein;
- T hydrophones in the hydrophone array receiving echoes from the ensonified area of the waterbody bottom;
- and,
- in the receiver, processing the T hydrophone outputs through T first pipelines that include analog to digital converters, processing each of the first pipeline outputs through N second pipelines that include respective bandpass filters, and processing the (T×N) second pipeline outputs through N beamformers;
- wherein a first of the frequency bands having a first center frequency enables a first survey mission and a second of the frequency bands having a second center frequency enables a second survey mission different from the first, the frequency band used by the first survey mission being widely spaced apart from the frequency band used by the second survey mission such that the survey system is enabled thereby to determine one or more frequency dependent characteristics of the ensonified scattering centers.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.