Advanced imaging sensors are the foundation of the Navys Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) and Mine Countermeasure (MCM) strategy, yet while sensors with sufficient resolution for target identification exist, they remain large, costly, and logistically challenging to deploy. Remote Sensing Solutions (RSS) is proposing to develop a unique, miniature, and easily reconfigurable Software Defined Sonar (SDS) system capable of providing the backbone of the Navys ASW/MCM sensing needs from common hardware and a common interface. In its primary configuration, the RSS SDS is an imaging and topographic mapping system capable of fitting into a package as small as 25cm x 6cm x 6cm and providing centimetric resolution and topographic mapping accuracy; however, because of the easy reconfigurability and large number of digitized channels, the RSS SDS can also serve as a flash sonar for fine-scale target interrogation, a low-power echo sounder, or even a multibeam collision avoidance / proximity operations sensor, all from common hardware and a common software interface. These highly different functions can be performed simultaneously, re-tasked by a user through a simple software interface, or autonomously switch between functions based on pre-defined events, such as detection of a pre-defined target. Such a capability is in direct support of the advanced yet diverse sensing needs of the Navy, while limiting deployment, configuration, and training costs for operations. The RSS SDS is enabled by our unique, low-cost ARENA platform. ARENA is both an established software-defined transceiver, allowing a high degree of customizing from a simple software graphical user interface (GUI) and/or eXtensible Markup Language (XML) object, and an Virtex Ultrascale+ processing engine, allowing complex algorithms, such as real-time interferometric synthetic aperture sonar (InSAS) processing and target detection, to be performed onboard, all within a low size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) package. Through onboard processing, target detection/classification algorithms can be performed on-vehicle, enabling longer endurance missions by allowing the sensing vehicle to perform appropriate functions (such as interrogating / neutralizing a target or contacting the host vehicle) only when an appropriate target is detected. Under this effort, RSS proposes to demonstrate the full multi-mode capability of the RSS SDS. Through a system prototype, we propose to demonstrate the capabilities of 2 or more key functions, including primarily InSAS, but also bottom sounding or obstacle detection/avoidance capabilities, from a single unit, with full software reconfigurability. These steps will establish the viability of our low cost, highly capable sensor concept.
Benefit: As a foundational aspect of the Navys Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) and Mine Countermeasure (MCM) strategy, underwater sensing and target detection are critical to underwater surveillance, but advanced sensors are typically large, costly, and complex. The Remote Sensing Solutions (RSS) Software Defined Sonar (SDS) concept can enable state-of-the-art yet low-cost mapping, easy reconfigurability, and easy accommodation, all from a very small package. Most notably, the size of the SDS package is significantly smaller than any state-of-the-art mapping system. With comparable coverage rates and centimetric resolution from a 25cm long transducer array, the RSS SDS in SAS or InSAS mode can be accommodated on virtually any vehicle, including low-cost micro-UUVs. Further, because the RSS SDS can serve multiple functions, even simultaneously, its small size is magnified further, as other sensors are not required. The RSS SDS can be easily configured and tasked, even in mission, through the RSS graphical user interface or directly through the simple manipulation of eXtensible Markup Language (XML) files. This configurability will allow reuse across multiple missions and vehicles, including vehicles of opportunity, with a minimum of non-recurring engineering and a minimum of training, accelerating the adaption by both expert and non-expert users. The significant onboard processing of the ARENA-based SDS enables long endurance by providing onboard image and/or map creation and detection, allowing, for example, the vehicle to maintain its mission until particular types of targets are detected. Further, because autonomous proximity detection algorithms are already part of the ARENA capability, a single sensor can perform both mapping and provide data for autonomous operation in congested environments. Finally, the ARENA SDS is based around a highly extendable platform, and easily networked between sensors, providing a path forward for advanced uses like swarm sensing, multi-static (MIMO), and tomography. All of these above aspects will provide significant advancement for the Navys sensing infrastructure, and are equally applicable to the commercial industry, where the lower cost per mapped square km of the RSS SDS, especially when coupled with a low cost micro-UUV, has already drawn significant customer interest.
Keywords: mine countermeasures, mine countermeasures, software defined sonar
