Utilization of new echo attributes for acoustic seabed classification and characterization

单波束回声测深仪是一种标准的海洋测量工具，它产生的回声返回用于绘制海底测深图。这些回波也包含了关于海床的信息，这些信息既来自海床表面散射回来的能量，也来自海床下面的沉积物体积。在有限的情况下，沉淀物的特性是通过这些回波的直接估计来表征的。然而，海底声学分类系统采用的一种更实用的方法是从海底回波中提取描述性统计数据，即特征。这种方法在当今的商业系统中很常见。海底分类系统利用特征集的分割算法，将海底划分为声学特征相似的部分。通过地面真值信息，这些分段通常可以成功地与海底类型的类别相关联。

The single-beam echosounder is a standard marine surveying tool that generates echo returns used to map seabed bathymetry. These echo returns also contain information about the seabed, both from energy scattered back from the seabed surface and from the sediment volume immediately below the seabed. In limited situations, sediment properties have been characterized by direct estimates from these echoes. However, a more practical approach utilized by acoustic seabed classification systems is to extract descriptive statistics known as features from seabed echoes. This approach is common to present day commercial systems. Seabed classification systems apply segmentation algorithms to sets of features to divide the seabed into segments of similar acoustic character. Through ground truth information, these segments are often successfully related to classes of seabed types.