Detection of buried and partially buried objects using a bio-inspired wideband sonar

The Ocean Systems Laboratory is developing bio-inspired wideband acoustic sensing methods for underwater target detection and tracking. The wideband sensors themselves are based on bottlenose dolphin sonar, covering a frequency band from around 30kHz to 150kHz and having a frequency dependent beamwidth considerably larger than conventional imaging sonars. The entire system is relatively compact and is suitable for mounting on a variety of platforms including small scale autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). In this paper we overview recent efforts applying the sonar to the detection and tracking of various underwater cables, and to the detection and classification of these cables in shallow burial, based on their midwater responses.