Littoral Sensors for Naval Special Forces

We propose to develop a littoral sensor which can map bottom properties in Very Shallow Water to help preparation for operations at the beach head. We are already in the second phase of development on a low cost directional wave buoy which is about the size of a small flashlight. In this project, with the assistance of Cal Poly SLO, we will add a thermistor to monitor water temperature and a dual frequency acoustic sonar to characterize the bottom. The additional cost is small because we can use the same microcontroller and RF comm. link. A COTS, piezo `fish finder' transducer, drive and receive circuits will be added, along with signal processing software algorithms. Depending on deployment, this expendable, free floating sensor may wash ashore providing bottom information right up to the tidal zone. A small aperture and low transmitted acoustic power is sufficient for the shallow waters.(<60 feet) that are critical to special forces operations