A WIDEBAND MONOPULSE SONAR SYSTEM

THE MAIN GOAL OF THE PHASE I EFFORT IS TO DEVELOP A PRELIMINARY DESIGN FOR A WIDEBAND MONOPULSE SONAR SYSTEM USEFUL IN ANALYZING BACKSCATTERED RETURNS FROM COMPLEX OBJECTS IN ORDER TO LOCALIZE THE SCATTERING CENTERS OF THE OBJECTS. IN DEVELOPING THE DESIGN, AN EVALUATION WILL FIRST BE MADE OF THE COST AND PERFORMANCE BENEFITS ASSOCIATED WITH USING PVDF BASED CONTINUOUS ARRAYS IN PLACE OF THE MORE COMMON DISCRETE ELEMENT LINE ARRAY. NEXT, THE WORK OF HENDERSON AND OTHERS IN MONOPULSE SONAR AND RADAR WILL BE USED AS A STARTING POINT INTHE DEVELOPMENT OF A PRELIMINARY DESIGN FOR THE SYSTEM DATA ACQUISITION AND SIGNAL PROCESSING FRONT-END. THEN, BASED ON IDENTIFICATION OF THE DESIRED OUTPUTS OF THE SYSTEM, A PRELIMINARYDESIGN FOR THE POST-PROCESSING SECTION OF THE SYSTEM WILL BE DEVELOPED WHICH ADDRESSES THE PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH SCATTERING CENTER LOCALIZATION, ANALYSIS AND DISPLAY. IN PHASE II, THE PRELIMINARY DESIGN WILL BE FINALIZED AND A PROTOTYPE DEVELOPED. THE RESULTS OF THE PROTOTYPE TESTING WILL BE USED INPHASE III TO DETERMINE APPROPRIATE TOOLS TO BE IMPLEMENTED WHICH WILL FURTHER THE GOALS OF THE POST-PROCESS ANALYSIS AND FACILITATE COMMERICAL APPLICATION OF THE SYSTEM.