Collaborative Research: Improving the DSL-120A Sonar Mapping System

PIs建议升级DSL-120声纳测绘系统，并解决与DSL-120A传感器集成和能力相关的问题。本工作需要完成的主要任务是：1)提高系统的信噪比，增强从基本声纳系统中提取有用相位测深数据的能力。2) pi将解决侧扫声纳和多普勒速度测井（DVL）之间的声波干扰，这种干扰阻止了两个系统同时工作。无法使用DVL会导致导航数据下降的声纳测量，特别是对于覆盖面积太大而无法连续应答器导航的测量。在升级过程中，由于DVL对外部触发的响应延迟时间长且多变，试图同步两个声纳的尝试失败了。3)改进DSL-120A系统的测深声纳能力，提高小尺度特征的分辨率，使其更接近后向散射成像的分辨率。像DSL-120A这样的相位测深声纳无法区分同时到达声纳换能器的海底不同部分的声反射，也就是说，它们与拖曳车辆的距离相同。在平坦的海底，这将是最接近车辆的海底部分的情况；在地势高的地区，这种情况可能发生在地图上的任何部分。多波束声纳结合了来自数十个水听器的信号，可以合成窄波束，拒绝相邻的反射，在这些情况下大大改善了水深测量。将增加使用DSL-120A声呐系统操作SM2000的能力。多波束系统将与DVL和侧扫描/长幅测深声纳同步，因此这三种声学传感器可以同时使用。拟议的改进将完成DSL-120A声纳系统所有必要传感器和能力的完全集成。这些改进将提高后向散射和相位测深声纳的信号质量，通过DVL的使用改善导航，并提供SM2000近底多波束数据的收集潜力，以提高使用DSL-120A声纳获得的测深数据的质量。

P.I. Rognstad, Mark Proposal: 0222468 Bowen, Andrew 0222432The PIs propose to upgrade the DSL-120 sonar mapping system and resolve problems related to the integration of DSL-120A sensors and capabilities. Primary tasks to be completed as part of this work are: 1) Improvement of the signal to noise ratio of the system to enhance the ability to extract useful phase-bathymetry data from the basic sonar system. 2) The PIs will resolve the acoustic interference between the sidescan sonar and the Doppler velocity log (DVL), which has prevented the simultaneous operation of both systems. The inability to use the DVL results in sonar surveys with degraded navigation data, particularly for surveys covering areas too large for continuous transponder navigation. Attempts to synchronize the two sonars during the upgrade were unsuccessful, due to long and variable length latency in the response of the DVL to external triggering. 3) Bathymetric sonar capabilities of the DSL-120A system will be improved to enhance resolution of small-scale features closer to the resolving capabilities of the backscatter imagery. Phase bathymetric sonars like the DSL-120A cannot distinguish acoustic reflections from different parts of the seafloor that arrive at the sonar transducers at the same time - that is, that are the same distance from the tow vehicle. Over a flat bottom, this will be the case for that part of the seafloor closest to the vehicle; in areas with high relief, this can happen in any part of the mapped swath. Multibeam sonar, which combines signals from dozens of hydrophones, can synthesize narrow beams that reject adjacent reflections, giving greatly improved bathymetry in these situations. The capability to operate the SM2000 with the DSL-120A sonar system will be added. The multi-beam system will be synchronized with both DVL and sidescan/swath bathymetry sonars, so all three acoustic sensors may be used simultaneously. The proposed improvements will complete the full integration of all the requisite sensors and capabilities of the DSL-120A sonar system. These improvements will improve signal quality of the backscatter and phase-bathymetric sonar, improve navigation through the use of the DVL, and offer the potential for collection of SM2000 near-bottom multibeam data to improve the quality of bathymetric data acquired using the DSL-120A sonar.