Multifan Survey System Using Coded Acoustic Beams
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current underwater survey technologies face challenges in improving data quality and speed while reducing costs, particularly in multifan ensonification for bathymetry, water column monitoring, and Doppler velocimetry, due to the complexity and cost of building and testing new equipment.
Innovation Solution
A multifan survey system that uses an array of projectors to transmit fan-shaped beams and hydrophones to receive echoes, enabling ensonification and processing of multiple fans in a single ping cycle, with coded message components and filtering techniques to distinguish echoes from different fans, allowing for faster survey speeds, improved precision, and multi-aspect imaging.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If traditional single-fan sonar systems are used, then equipment complexity and cost are reduced, but survey speed and data acquisition efficiency deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the sonar survey into multiple fan-shaped beams (first fan, second fan, third fan, etc.) that are transmitted in sequence within a single ping cycle. Each fan covers a specific angular sector, allowing the system to survey multiple directions simultaneously without requiring multiple separate transmissions, thus increasing survey speed while managing equipment complexity through signal processing segmentation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system employs periodic transmission of coded messages modulated with different codes (first code, second code, third code) for each fan beam. This periodic action with distinct coding allows the receiver to distinguish echoes from different fans through code correlation, enabling multifan operation within a single ping cycle and improving productivity without proportionally increasing device complexity.
2Measurement precision
If multifan ensonification is implemented, then survey efficiency and data quality improve, but equipment cost and manufacturing complexity worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses coded message components that are transmitted repeatedly with different codes for different fans. The receiver correlates incoming echoes with stored code templates to identify which fan each echo originated from. This copying approach allows the same physical equipment to perform multiple fan surveys by reusing the same hardware with different signal codes, avoiding the need to manufacture multiple separate sonar systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The sonar system is designed to perform multiple functions within a single ping cycle by transmitting multiple fan beams with different coded messages. The same projector array and receiver can survey different angular sectors, water column features, and bottom characteristics simultaneously through multifan operation, making the equipment universal and multi-functional rather than requiring specialized equipment for each survey type.
3Loss of time
If multiple fans are ensonified in a single ping cycle, then survey time is reduced, but signal processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system distinguishes echoes from different fans by changing the code parameter of the transmitted message for each fan. The first fan uses a first code, the second fan uses a second code, and so on. The receiver changes the corresponding code parameter in its correlation process to match each transmitted code, allowing it to separate and process echoes from multiple fans simultaneously. This parameter-based differentiation reduces survey time while managing signal processing complexity through systematic code correlation.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The multifan survey system enhances survey efficiency by enabling faster data acquisition, improved precision, and increased independent soundings, benefiting applications like bathymetry, water column monitoring, and Doppler velocimetry, while reducing the time and cost associated with traditional survey methods.
Implementation Method 1
an array of projectors transmits a beam that ensonifies reflectors and an array of hydrophones receives echoes from these reflectors
Implementation Method 2
with coded message components and filtering techniques to distinguish echoes from different fans
Data Source
AI summary
A survey system including a multibeam echo sounder having a single projector array and a single hydrophone array constructs a multi-component message for ensonifying multiple fans and deconstructs a corresponding message echo for use in analyzing the returns from each fan.