LIDAR Sensor for Underwater and Airborne Mine Detection

The Airborne Laser Mine Detection System (ALMDS) is a helicopter-deployed LADAR system aimed at reducing damage to vessels from mines in shallow littoral waters. The ALMDS system has successfully been demonstrated using a Streak Tube Imaging LIDAR system, however, the time sequential nature of a streak tube system coupled with the dynamic nature of the ocean surface introduces artifact and signal processing complexity in mine detection operations. Moreover, one of the most significant long-term technical challenges identified in mine reconnaissance is submarine-launched, unmanned underwater vehicles "UUV's" designed to look for mines "covertly". Salvador Imaging proposes the development of a 2"x2"x4" flash LADAR system which provides precise snapshots of 3-D data at an update rate of up to 400 frames per second. Unlike current high-speed ROIC efforts, the proposed architecture has high fill factor for good optical sensitivity and can provide spatial resolution comparable to the current ALMDS imaging system. The system proposed makes use of a 532nm laser source, but could easily be extended to other visible or NIR bands as needed. Because the entire data set for each range image is captured simultaneously, artifact from target, platform, or sea-surface motion is eliminated.