Method for determination of the instantaneous position of an acoustic section which is towed at a selected towing depth of a towed-array antenna

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for determination of the instantaneous position of an acoustics section of a towed-array antenna (11) which is towed in the water by a towing vehicle (10) and has a deployed length. When using a towed-array antenna, e.g. for detecting sound emitting or sound reflecting targets, it is important to determine the position and the alignment of the acoustics section. In order to determine a sufficiently accurate position without any additional hardware complexity and without demanding computation power, the position of the acoustics section is fixed at at least one selected point (14) in the acoustics section, and the position (Pt2) of the selected point (14) is estimated by means of a model from the positions (Ot1, Pt1) assumed by the towing vehicle (10) and the selected point (14] at the start of the movement (19) and from the position (Ot2) assumed by the towing vehicle (10) at the end of the movement (19), including the deployed length (L) of the towed-array antenna and the towing depth of the acoustics section. The method features the advantage of providing a practicable determination of the instantaneous position and of the alignment of the acoustics section of the towed-array antenna with little computation complexity resulting in a quick determination.

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