Distributed Sensor System Innovations

The overall intent of this project is to develop a triaxial pressure-acceleration vector sensor that is suitable for reliable acoustic path sensing. The sensor is intended to have a nominal size that is commensurate with an AN/SSQ-53 DIFAR sonobuoy wet-end transducer, have a 6 km submergence depth rating, and exhibit a noise floor of nominally 40 dB re 1 micro-pascals-squared per hertz. This is accomplished through a novel pressure vessel, acoustic transducer, and electronics system design. The Phase II Base Effort will largely comprise of a R&D study that is heavily weighted towards numerical modeling of the pressure vessel and transducers. Bench-top experiments and experiments performed at academic, commercial, and Navy laboratories will be conducted on a prototype device. The Phase II Option is geared towards adapting the sensor for use in a vertical line array by integrating the appropriate mechanical and electrical interfaces. Sensors will be supplied to fabricate a four-element line array which will subsequently be tested.