SAS and vehicle stability constraints

This paper gives a summary of synthetic aperture sonar technology, especially from the point of view of SAS design with respect to beamforming and micro-navigation constraints. In the first part of this paper, we recall the principle of synthetic aperture processing and self-calibration micro-navigation technique based on ping-to-ping cross-correlation (P/sup 2/C/sup 2/). The second part is dedicated to the analysis of the constraints applicable on synthetic aperture sonar design regarding coverage rate, P/sup 2/C/sup 2/ performances and vehicle stability. The way to take into account vehicle stability in sonar design is explained, and an abacus facilitating the choice of a self-calibration method, regarding the design complexity versus performances are presented.

[1]  F. Fohanno,et al.  Theoretical performance and experimental results for synthetic aperture sonar self-calibration , 1998, IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society. OCEANS'98. Conference Proceedings (Cat. No.98CH36259).

[2]  D. Billon,et al.  Detection and imaging performance of a synthetic aperture sonar , 1993, Proceedings of OCEANS '93.

[3]  F. Fohanno,et al.  Two improved ping-to-ping cross-correlation methods for synthetic aperture sonar: theory and sea results , 2002, OCEANS '02 MTS/IEEE.

[4]  R. W. Sheriff.  Synthetic aperture beamforming with automatic phase compensation for high frequency sonars , 1992, Proceedings of the 1992 Symposium on Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Technology.