The Integrated Marine Acoustic Controller System

This paper describes the Integrated Marine Acoustic Controller System (IMACS), a system that provides automated concurrent operation of multiple sonar integrated onto a single survey platform. The system avoids issues of sensor crosstalk by scheduling the transmit-receive cycles through an environmentally adaptive approach in a noninterfering fashion. By dynamically adapting the triggering of the payload sensors, the system optimises the execution of the seabed mapping survey and improves the quality of resulting data, thereby significantly increasing survey productivity. The system's features, design and implementation are presented, as well as a discussion and initial analysis of the first at-sea trials.

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