The features of two forward looking sonars for ROV/UUV and their experimental results

Abstract

In this paper, the features of two new forward looking sonars for remotely operated vehicle/unmanned underwater vehicle (ROV/UUV) are described. These two sonars have different system structures: one is composed of a rectangular acoustic array and parallel DSP central processing unit; and the other one is composed of a cross-line array and single fast DSP board as a central processing unit. Both of them include other common and necessary components which have been modularized. The new software for high resolution acoustic imaging developed for both sonars are also presented. A comparison and analysis of experimental results from these two sonars is presented. Finally, conclusions based on a number of imaging experiments are given.