Abstract
In sonar applications, the ability to locate underwater structures such as pipelines and a wreckage of submerged airplane is important. To investigate extensive sections of the seabed within a limited time period, the scanning speed and the reliability of object detection alarms are the most critical factors for finding objects. In this paper, we propose a method to provide an automatic detection alarm indicating the presence of suspected underwater objects using high-speed imaging sonar. The proposed method is based on the cross-correlations between two successive acoustic beam profiles of imaging sonar. The alarm signal alerts human operators or automatic underwater vehicles to suspected objects, which may be a part of or all of the target object. Using this signal as a trigger, the object can then be examined in more detail to determine whether it is the target. We verified the feasibility of the proposed method by indoor and field experiments.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, Korea, under the IT Consilience Creative Program (NIPA-2014-H0201-14-1001), supervised by the NIPA National IT Industry Promotion Agency. This work was partly supported by the Civil Military Technology Cooperation Center. This research was a part of the project titled “Gyeongbuk Sea Grant Program”, funded by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, Korea.
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Cho, H., Gu, J., Joe, H. et al. Acoustic beam profile-based rapid underwater object detection for an imaging sonar. J Mar Sci Technol 20, 180–197 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00773-014-0294-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00773-014-0294-x