Implementation and application of a real-time sidescan sonar simulator

James Riordan, Edin Omerdic, Daniel Toal

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

This paper describes the functional theory and design of a modular simulator to generate, in real-time, physically representative spatio-temporal sidescan sonar echo data. The seafloor topography Is generated using fractal theory and the resulting terrain is tesselated into triangular facets. Propagation of the acoustic fan beam is determined by a ray theory solution of the governing wave equation while the contribution of each facet to the recorded intensity at the sonar transducer is resolved by applying Jackson's seafloor scattering model. The computational bottleneck inherent in the discovery of illuminated facets at each ping is significantly reduced by the implementation of an optimised mesh refinement scheme intended for interactive rendering of large-scale complex surfaces described by polygonal meshes. The resulting performance increases enabled the successful integration of the sonar simulator with an existing AUV simulator. Synthetic images and the performance measures of the sidescan simulator image generation are presented.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationOceans 2005 - Europe
Pages981-986
Number of pages6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2005
EventOceans 2005 - Europe - Brest, France
Duration: 20 Jun 200523 Jun 2005

Publication series

NameOceans 2005 - Europe
Volume2

Conference

ConferenceOceans 2005 - Europe
Country/TerritoryFrance
CityBrest
Period20/06/0523/06/05

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