SBIR-STTR Award

In support of future U.S. Navy mine-hunting and surveillance systems, Imaging Microsensors Inc. (IMI) proposes an innovative acoustic method for identifying and locating seafloor features and objects that had been previously detected. The ability to re-acquire an object in sonar images, at arbitrary times and aspect angles, is critical to many applications involving underwater operations, including the reacquisition of a target, station keeping, maneuvering relative to stationary objects, mapping, and navigation by landmarks. IMI has developed extensive SAS imaging computer simulation software. The imaging software will be adapted to include realistic assumptions, made using a modern sonar modeling software package currently in use at ARL,UT-Austin, about target strength and background reverberation. The SAS imaging software will also be adapted to produce images at different aspect angles of the simulated targets and the associated shadowing effects for the purpose of developing image registration algorithms and evaluating their performance. Phase I will model the acoustic response of seafloor features and objects, determine important system requirements, develop basic registration algorithms, and identify sonar systems capable of supporting the algorithms. In Phase II, engineering development of sensor and measurement technology will be carried out leading to a laboratory demonstration on a Navy representative vehicle. There is private sector interest in underwater navigation and station-keeping relative to the seafloor, particularly in the growing sonar and autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) sector. Applications include oil drilling, underwater mining, and salvage/recovery. They all could benefit from this technology

In support of future U.S. Navy mine-hunting and surveillance systems, Imaging Microsensors Inc. (IMI) developed an innovative, lightweight, high-resolution, acoustic imaging method for identifying and locating natural seafloor features and objects that had been previously detected. The ability to re-acquire an object in sonar images, at arbitrary times and aspect angles, is critical to many applications involving underwater operations, including the reacquisition of a target, station keeping, maneuvering relative to stationary objects, mapping, and navigation by landmarks. Phase I showed the feasibility of the proposed method. Phase I modeled the acoustic response of seafloor features and objects, determined important system requirements, developed the basic registration algorithm, and identified sonar systems capable of supporting the algorithm. Also, Phase I developed a baseline design of an experimental system to be demonstrated in Phase II. Phase II will experimentally demonstrate an AUV-compatible system for acoustic registration of seafloor features and objects. Specifically, in Phase II, we will process existing real SAS data, complete the design of the experimental system based on lessons learned from processing such data, build the experimental sensor, refine processing algorithms, and perform an experimental demonstration of the acoustic registration system at Lake Travis Test Station of ARL, UT-Austin.

Keywords:
Sonar, Sas, Acoustic Imaging, Seafloor Imaging, Acoustic Registration, Acoustic Recognition, Underwa