2138 results about "Sonar" patented technology

A system and method for signal distribution within a sensor array uses a coaxial transmission line. Taps are affixed to the outer conductor of the coaxial transmission line and include field coupling portions extending into the internal field region of the coaxial transmission line. Electromagnetic energy propagating within the transmission line can be extracted to power the sensors. Sensor signals can be modulated onto radio frequency signals and propagated along the transmission line to distribute the sensor signals.

The present invention provides a process for separating a good quality information signal from a noisy acoustic environment. The separation process uses a set of a least two spaced-apart transducers to capture noise and information components. The transducer signals, which have both a noise and information component, are received into a separation process. The separation process generates one channel that is substantially only noise, and another channel that is a combination of noise and information. An identification process is used to identify which channel has the information component. The noise signal is then used to set process characteristics that are applied to the combination signal to efficiently reduce or eliminate the noise component. In this way, the noise is effectively removed from the combination signal to generate a good qualify information signal. The information signal may be, for example, a speech signal, a seismic signal, a sonar signal, or other acoustic signal.

In the context of array sensors such as radar, sonar, and communications receiver arrays, the present invention exploits the geometry phase components of radiated wavefronts associated with the signals of interest in order to reduce the bandwidth requirements for DOA and beamforming processing. Additionally, geometry phase is exploited in order to effectively increase the resolution of an array without changing the size of its physical footprint or the number of array elements. Other embodiments of the invention include the use of virtual array elements for increase in effective array size.

In the context of array sensors such as radar, sonar, and communications receiver arrays, the present invention exploits the geometry phase components of radiated wavefronts associated with the signals of interest in order to reduce the bandwidth requirements for DOA and beamforming processing. Additionally, geometry phase is exploited in order to effectively increase the resolution of an array without changing the size of its physical footprint. Other embodiments of the invention include the use of virtual array elements for increase in effective array size.

A system for a vehicle is provided for allowing a user of the vehicle or installation to obtain advanced and up-to-date information about the surroundings of the vehicle or installation and the vehicle or installation itself. The system may be located on a marine vessel and it integrates information from a number of different information sources, located both on and off the vessel, en including information from advanced radar and sonar subsystems on the ship, information from conventional instruments and sensors and information from onshore and offshore installations and EO satellites accessed via a control centre onshore. The system may communicate with the control centre via a communication satellite and / or wireless Internet, if available. A data processing apparatus for processing and presenting the data is also provided. The data is received, processed and presented in three dimensions in space and updated in real time or near real time such that time provides a fourth dimension to the data. A graphical user interface for presenting the data is also provided. The graphical user interface provides functionality for reporting an error in the system if the end user's own observations do not match the presented data. Additionally, a system for collecting data comprising more than one ship, the control centre and means for the ships and the control centre to communicate is provided. The system comprises a catalogue and storage network for storing collected data. All data is stored with an associated quality measure of the data.

An unmanned system for investigating underwater regions utilizes an unmanned mothership and a plurality of unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs). The mothership transports the UUVs to and from the vicinity of an underwater region, releases the UUVs into the water, and facilitates recovery of the UUVs from the water. Each UUV can traverse an underwater region, generate sonar and image data associated with the underwater region, and transmit the sonar and image data through the water for receipt and re-transmission by the mothership. A docking system mounted partially onboard the mothership and partially onboard each UUV couples each UUV to the mothership and selectively releases each UUV into the underwater region. A guidance system mounted partially onboard the mothership and partially onboard each UUV guides each UUV back to the docking system from positions in the water. The mothership and UUVs can also be equipped with a non-contact electrical energy transfer system so that each UUV can return to the mothership and re-charge onboard batteries while underwater.

Device, system and method, in a vehicle communication system, of generating a location by the use of combining the rough locations of a “consensus set” of vehicles within wireless communication range to produce more accurate locations of the vehicles in the consensus set. Unique features of some embodiments include the continual re-computation and re-adjustment of both the vehicles in the consensus set and the more accurate locations. Embodiments use sensors on a first vehicle, such as cameras, sonar, radar and LIDAR to determine the relative location of the second vehicle to the first vehicle. Embodiments use this relative location in the computation of the more accurate locations. Algorithms are described for the computation, communication, convergence and updating of the more accurate locations. Algorithms are described for generation and update of the consensus set.

System and method for tracking obstacles by an autonomous vehicle. Localization sensors (i.e., sensors to measure pitch, roll, and yaw, and systems including an inertial navigation system, a compass, a global positioning system, or an odometer) detect the position of the vehicle. Perception sensors (e.g., LIDAR, stereo vision, infrared vision, radar, or sonar) assess the environment about the vehicle. Using these sensors, locations of terrain features relative to the vehicle are computed and kept up-to-date. The vehicle trajectory is adjusted to avoid terrain features that are obstacles in the path of the vehicle.

A system for controlling a marine vessel that includes a sonar depth finder configured to display a chart for a body of water. The chart has depth information for the body of water, and is programmed to allow a user to select from a plurality of depths indicated on the sonar depth finder display. The sonar depth finder further is configured to generate a route for the marine vessel. The route includes a path through the body of water where each point along the path is at the desired depth. The system includes a vessel control device in communication with the sonar depth finder. The vessel control device is configured to receive transmissions from the sonar depth finder. The transmissions include the route generated by the sonar depth finder. The vessel control device is further configured to automatically direct the marine vessel along the route.

A motorized wheel-chair is equipped with one or more sensors for detecting obstacles. The detection method may be either radar or sonar (or both). An on-board computer processes these echoes and presents a visual or auditory display. With the benefit of these displays, the user issues voice commands (or exerts manual pressure) to maneuver appropriately the motorized wheelchair. One or more microphones pick up the sounds of the user's voice and transmit them to a computer. The computer decodes the maneuvering commands by speech-recognition techniques and transmits these commands to the wheelchair to effect the desired motion. In addition to speech recognition for decoding commands, voice (speaker) recognition is employed to determine authorized users.

A roll stability control system (18) for an automotive vehicle (10) includes an external environment sensing system, such as a camera-based vision system, or a radar, lidar or sonar-based sensing system (43) that generates image, radar, lidar, and / or sonar-based signals. A controller (26) is coupled to the sensing system and generates dynamic vehicle characteristic signals in response to the image, radar, lidar, or sonar-based signals. The controller controls the rollover control system (18) in response to the dynamic vehicle control signal. The dynamic vehicle characteristics may include roll related angles, angular rates, and various vehicle velocities.

Invention relates to a novel method of and system for ranging between an acoustic source carried on an unmanned or autonomous undersea mobile vehicle (UUV or AUV) and preferably a plurality of hydrophone receivers remotely deployed from the vehicle in predetermined patterns, generally suspended from sonobuoys equipped with above-the-sea relay radio transmitting antennas, and with time synchronization provided amongst the source and the receivers, wherein the time delay from the transmissions of the source is measured by utilizing special signal processing, enabling range to be measured in close to real time by determining the product of the sound velocity and the measured time delay, and with the process continually and periodically being repeated throughout the duration of the vehicle run. Given the range, the system may then be used to measure the acoustical properties of and / or receiver system performance in the sea or other water body, such as transmission or propagation loss TL, channel impulse response, bottom geoacoustic properties, source level, receiver sensitivity calibration, sonar operator readiness and sonar receiver performance and the like. Further, in situ measured data can be assimilated with models to enable more accurate prediction of the ocean environment than could be obtained from either individually.

A modular device, system and associated method, used to enhance the quality and output speed of any generic GPS engine is provided. The modular device comprises an inertial subsystem based on a solid state gyroscope having a plurality of accelerometers and a plurality of angular rate sensors designed to measure linear acceleration and rotation rates around a plurality of axes. The modular inertial device may be placed in the data stream between a standard GPS receiver and a guidance device to enhance the accuracy and increase the frequency of positional solutions. Thus, the modular inertial device accepts standard GPS NMEA input messages from the source GPS receiver, corrects and enhances the GPS data using computed internal roll and pitch information, and produces an improved, more accurate, NMEA format GPS output at preferably 2 times the positional solution rate using GPS alone. The positional solution frequency using the present invention may increase to as much as 5 times that obtained using GPS alone. Moreover, the modular inertial device may assist when the GPS signal is lost for various reasons. If used without GPS, the modular inertial device may be used to define, and adjust, a vehicle's orientation on a relative basis. The modular inertial device and architecturally partitioned system incorporated into an existing GPS system may be applied to navigation generally, including high-precision land-based vehicle positioning, aerial photography, crop dusting, and sonar depth mapping to name a few applications.

Automatic homing systems are disclosed, operable between pairs of objects. One or both of the objects in the pair may be moving and / or unmanned. Examples of a pair of objects between which the inventive automatic homing systems may be operated are ground vehicles in leader-follower configuration, as well as aircraft, spacecraft, watercraft. The automatic homing systems are based on a relatively simple, elegant concept of rightness / leftness and a line-of-sight link between a respective leader vehicle and follower vehicle. Complex EO / IR cameras, LIDAR, RADAR, and / or SONAR-based sensor systems can be avoided. Convoys of vehicles in leader-follower configuration advantageously may be operated without needing human operators in the follower vehicles.

A continuous wave Light Detection and Ranging (CW LiDAR) system utilizes two or more laser frequencies and time or range shifted pseudorandom noise (PN) codes to discriminate between the laser frequencies. The performance of these codes can be improved by subtracting out the bias before processing. The CW LiDAR system may be mounted to an artificial satellite orbiting the earth, and the relative strength of the return signal for each frequency can be utilized to determine the concentration of selected gases or other substances in the atmosphere.

Underwater position determination is provided by combining sonar-derived ranging data between a sonar receiver and a sonar transmitter with GPS position data to provide geographically-referenced position data accurately representing the position of a sonar receiver carried or worn by a diver or submersible vehicle. Function and accuracy enhancements are provided to compensate for diver and sonar transmitter and depth difference and differences of sonar signal propagation speed as well as several techniques of compensation for change of position of the GPS receiver and for logging diver and / or vehicle path.

In an ultrasonic transceiver, an inner housing has a bottom portion, a first tubular side wall extending from one end surface of the bottom portion and a first flange portion formed on an outer peripheral portion of the first tubular side wall. The bottom portion and first tubular side wall provide a tubular cavity formed therebetween, and the piezoelectric member is mounted on the one end surface of the bottom portion in the tubular cavity. An outer housing has a second tubular side wall coaxially arranged around the outer peripheral portion of the first tubular side wall with a predetermined gap therebetween. The second tubular side wall is provided with one end portion which is opposite to one end surface of the first flange portion and contacted thereto. A first absorption member is inserted in the gap between the first tubular side wall and the second tubular side wall.

A micro unmanned aerial vehicle or drone (“UAV”) 10 is remotely controlled through an HMI, although this remote control is supplemented by and selectively suppressed by an on-board controller. The controller operates to control the generation of a sonar bubble that generally encapsulates the UAV. The sonar bubble, which may be ultrasonic in nature, is produced by a multiplicity of sonar lobes generated by specific sonar emitters associated with each axis of movement for the UAV. The emitters produce individual and beamformed sonar lobes that partially overlap to provide stereo or bioptic data in the form of individual echo responses detected by axis-specific sonar detectors. In this way, the on-board controller is able to interpret and then generate 3-D spatial imaging of the physical environment in which the UAV is currently moving or positioned. The controller is therefore able to plot relative and absolute movement of the UAV through the 3-D space by recording measurements from on-board gyroscopes, magnetometers and accelerometers. Data from the sonar bubble can therefore both proactively prevent collisions with objects by imposing a corrective instruction to rotors and other flight control system and can also assess and compensate for sensor drift.

The invention discloses an underwater object precision positioning system and a method. The system comprises a mother ship, a computer with a plurality of serial ports, a desk computer, an ultra short base line positioning system, a differential GPS (global positioning system), a compass, an ROV (remote-operated vehicle) system, a forward-looking sonar camera, a low-illuminance black and white video camera, an attitude indicator and a temperature-salinity depth profiling instrument. A shore-based transceiver, an ROV water surface system unit and the like of the ultra-short base line positioning system are carried by the mother ship, and underwater system units such as a transponder of the ultra-short base line positioning system, the forward-looking sonar camera and the like are carried by an ROV submersible vehicle, so that the underwater object precision positioning system is formed. By the aid of acoustic positioning between the shore-based transceiver and the transponder of the ultra-short base line positioning system and acoustic positioning of forward-looking sonar, the shortcoming that an existing underwater GPS positioning system only can position an object carried with anacoustic response device in a water area is overcome, and longitude and latitude coordinates of an optional unknown object in an optional water area can be positioned in a WGS (world geodetic system)84 ellipsoidal coordinate system in real time.

The invention provides a building method of a grid map by a mobile robot based on real-time data fusion. The method comprises the following steps: artificially dividing an environment into a plurality of grids with the same size, and obtaining the distance information by sonar sensors arranged on the front end of the mobile robot; extracting measured values of three sonar sensors which are closest to a currently computed grid unit at the same time, respectively explaining a single sonar data by a fuzzy logic and a probability theory so as to obtain a group of characteristic vectors which are subject to the data fusion as input vectors of a neural network, wherein, output values of the neural network comprises idle state, busy state and undefined state of the grid; finally updating the state of the grid by the Bayes rule. The mobile robot of the invention obtains the environmental information by sonar ranging finders and completes the environmental modeling, thus providing reliable basis for the subsequent autonomous navigation of the mobile robot.

Many different types of systems are utilized or tasks are performed in a marine environment. The present invention provides various configurations of unmanned vehicles, or drones, that can be operated and / or controlled for such systems or tasks. One or more unmanned vehicles can be integrated with a dedicated marine electronic device of a marine vessel for autonomous control and operation. Additionally or alternatively, the unmanned vehicle can be manually remote operated during use in the marine environment. Such unmanned vehicles can be utilized in many different marine environment systems or tasks, including, for example, navigation, sonar, radar, search and rescue, video streaming, alert functionality, among many others. However, as contemplated by the present invention, the marine environment provides many unique challenges that may be accounted for with operation and control of an unmanned vehicle.

The invention discloses a teleoperation unmanned submersible for detecting and disposing a submarine target, and is applied to the field of detecting and disposing technologies for submarine targets in the limpidity water area and the muddy water area. A power propulsion device of the teleoperation unmanned submersible comprises four screw propellers installed on a submersible body frame, wherein a cable interface and a signal interface are combined so as to form a photoelectric composite cable interface; underwater detection equipment comprises submersible front detection equipment and submersible lower detection equipment; a forward follow-up bright light searching lamp, a follow-up glimmer camera and an acoustic lens of a detection sonar are fixedly installed on a pitching rotation cradle head; the pitching rotation cradle head generates pitching rotation relative to the submersible body frame so as to adjust detection and viewing angles of the submersible front detection equipment fixed on the pitching rotation cradle head; and submersible position and attitude sensor group realize exact locating on positions and attitudes of an ROV (remotely-operated vehicle), thereby improving the service property of the unmanned submersible, and expanding the application area of the unmanned submersible.

An ultrasonic transmitter generates a reference signal based on a clock signal of a specific frequency and a control signal made up of binary values 0 and 1 for controlling how the level (High or Low) of a carrier drive signal should change, and generates an analog signal constituting the carrier drive signal by pulse-duration-modulating the reference signal. Produced from the carrier drive signal, a driving pulse signal is shaped into a curved waveform having a gradually rising leading edge and a gradually falling trailing edge as the amplitude of the carrier drive signal is gradually increased and decreased based on the control signal.

A system and method for target classification for an aircraft surveillance radar is provided. In one implementation, the track classifier provides tracks with an updated probability value based on its likelihood to conform to aircraft and non-aircraft target behavior. The track classifier identifies false tracks that may arise from weather and biological targets, and can detect aircrafts lacking Secondary Surveillance Radar (SSR) data. Various features and combinations of features are evaluated using a proposed clustering performance index (CPI) and used to discriminate between aircrafts and false tracks.

The invention relates to an underwater vehicle navigation system, in particular to an autonomous underwater vehicle combined navigation system. The system comprises an inertia basis navigation device and an external sensor navigation device, wherein the inertia basis navigation device comprises a Doppler velocimeter, an optical fiber gyro, a pressure sensor, an electronic compass and a depthometer; and the external sensor navigation device comprises a sonar. The combined navigation system also comprises an underwater structure optical sensor and an underwater binocular vision platform, wherein the underwater structural optical sensor comprises a forward-vision structure optical sensor positioned on the front of an outer frame of an autonomous underwater vehicle, and a downward-vision structure optical sensor positioned at the bottom of the outer frame; the underwater binocular vision platform comprises a forward-vision binocular vision platform positioned on the front of the outer frame, and a downward-vision binocular vision platform positioned at the bottom of the outer frame; the forward-vision structure optical sensor and the forward-vision binocular vision platform form a forward-vision structure optical and visual system module positioned on the front of the outer frame; and the downward-vision structure optical sensor and the downward-vision binocular vision platform form a downward-vision structure optical and visual system module positioned at the bottom of the outer frame.

The invention relates to a microminiature operation underwater robot of a nuclear power plant, and the robot comprises an underwater robot body and an onshore control system, wherein two propellers are respectively arranged in the horizontal and vertical directions of the robot body, a depth gauge is arranged on the right side of the front part of the robot body, a manipulator is arranged at the bottom in front of the robot body, and a sonar is arranged on the top of the robot body; a control cabin is arranged in the middle rear part of the robot body; an outer cabin is sealed by a transparent glass cover, and is provided with a rearview camera and an auxiliary lighting light-emitting diode (LED) lamp; a front-view camera system is arranged at the front part of the robot body, and comprises a zooming radiation resistant camera tube, a tripod head and a lighting lamp; a video image and control signal is transmitted to the onshore control system through a shield cable; and the control system comprises a movement control rod, a manipulator control button, a keyboard, a main display screen and a speed governing knob. The microminiature operation underwater robot of the nuclear power plant is used for the monitoring and the simple foreign body fishing of a core pool, a spent fuel pool and a component pool of the nuclear power plant.