Multi-Static Active Sonar Processing with Unknown Transmission Type

"The proposed Phase II SBIR Study for bi-static echo ranging withunknown sources of opportunity defines an integrated analysisapproach and several innovative processing techniques that willproduce an effective submarine sonar design. The increasing needfor active echo detection is driven by the continually evolvingquieter threat submarines and noisier acoustic environments thatseverely limit passive sonar detection performance. Submarinesoften operate in areas wherenatural or man-made acoustic energy sources of unknown or non-cooperative origin are present. This program develops submarineacoustic processing technology that facilitates the detectionandlocalization of threat submarine bi-static active echoes,withoutincreasing our own submarine acoustic emissions and compromisingstealth. At the same time the study results will provideinformation that can be used to formulate a strategy to reducethe probability of being detected by potential threatsubmarines.Signal and data processing algorithms and trade-offstudies are proposed for: 1) Precise characterization of active emissions 2) Near optimum Bi-Static echo detection 3) Accurate target LocalizationBENEFITS: In addition to the many Antisubmarine Warfare (ASW) applications, the techniques developed for this application may be useful for other object detection and ranging applications: collision avoidance for marine and terrestrial vehicles,unobtrusive tracking