• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.107-113
• /
• 1993

Sidescan sonar uses the fan type beam which has horizontally narrow and vertically somewhat wide beam pattern. To construct such a beam we will use an array of transducers. In case of using single transducer it must have a high frequency to have the fan type beam, but in case of using an array it must have to be high frequency. We are planning to use 30 kHz transducers for our sidescan sonar under development. This paper shows ways of designing a narrow beam for the sidescan sonar system by illustrating various shapes of the beam patterns.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
• /
• 2002.10a
• /
• pp.330-330
• /
• 2002

The combination of Multi-Beam Echo Sounder swath bathymetry and high-resolution towed Sidescan sonar provides a powerful method of examination about hydrographic survey results. In this paper, we investigate the fast method of 3D bathymetric reconstruction with the Digital Sidescan sonar(Benthos SIS 1500) and Shallow Multi-Beam Echo Sounder(Reson Seabat 8125). The Seabat 8125 is a 455KHz high resolution focused Multibeam echo sounder(MBES) system which measures the relative water depth across a wide swath perpendicular to a vessel's track. The Benthos SIS1500 is a chirp(nominal fq. 200KHz) sonar which map the topographical features & sediment texture of ocean bottom using backscattered amplitude. We generates the very large 3D bathymetric texture mapping model with the Helical System's HHViewer and describes additional benefits of combining MBES and Sidescan Sonar imagery, the removal of geometric distortions in the model and a deterministic sounding noise.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.7 no.6
• /
• pp.1023-1033
• /
• 2012

An underwater planar covering problem is studied where the coverage region consists of polygonal cells, and line sweep motion is used for coverage. In many subsea applications, sidescan sonar has become a common tool, and the sidescan sonar data is meaningful only when the sonar is moving in a straight line. This work studies the optimal line sweep coverage where the sweep paths of the cells consist of straight lines and no turn is allowed inside the cell. An optimal line sweep coverage solution is presented when the line sweep path is parallel to an edge of the cell boundary. The total time to complete the coverage task is minimized. A unique contribution of this work is that the optimal sequence of cell visits is computed in addition to the optimal line sweep paths and the optimal cell decomposition.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
• /
• v.49 no.2
• /
• pp.143-148
• /
• 2012

There are many researches on segmentation of sidescan sonar image to recognize or classify the underwater objects. Although existing algorithms's performance is good in detecting object's shadow and reducing the underwater noise, the computing time is very low. In this paper we try to separate shadow from background and segment the underwater image by using morphological method using background's noise distribution characteristics and object's shadow charateristics. This algorithm is useful when the average of background is lower than the average of the shadow, because this is adjusted from the background's chracteristics. Results shows that the algorithm works fine in multiple object environments and the computing time is reduced to 1 second.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers Conference
• /
• 2002.08a
• /
• pp.308-315
• /
• 2002

해양구조물 설치(Offshore Engineering)에 대한 수요가 급증함에 따라 보다 정확한 설계와 시공을 위한 해저지형 및 지질환경에 대한 탐사(Geophysical Survey)수요가 급격히 증가하고 있다. 전자기파의 감쇄가 심한 해수로 덮여 있는 해저에 대한원격탐사 매체로는 SONAR(SOund Navigation And Ranging)시스템이 일반적으로 이용되고 있다. (중략)

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers Conference
• /
• 2001.08a
• /
• pp.163-171
• /
• 2001

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
• /
• 2002.10a
• /
• pp.663-663
• /
• 2002

The National Oceanographic Research Institute of KOREA started to survey for the basic data necessary to territorial sea and EEZ identification and marine development with Multi-Beam Echo Sounder(L3 SeaBeam 2112) since 1996. The Multi-Beam surveys has provided a very new and precise way of describing the morphology and nature of the underwater seabed. Multi-Beam Echo Sounder systems employ sound waves propagating at angles which vary from vertical to nearly horizontal. The locations on the bottom where echoes are generated cover a swath whose port to starboard width may be equal to many times the water depth. Newer Multi-beam bathymetric sonars provide both a beam by beam depth and backscatter amplitude of the bottom. But The backscattered amplitude didn't use for identification of bottom properties because backscatter amplitude effects by the many environmental variables of underwater and seabed. We investigates the utilization of geo-referenced backscatter amplitude and analysis of relationship between The Backscattered Amplitude and Sidescan Sonar imagery from Sea Beam 2112. For the backscattered amplitude imagery mainly represents the properties of sediment, we computed the beam geometry, time-varied amplifier gain, and mainly incidence angle to the topography using bathymetric model at each ping. In this paper, those issues are illustrated, and the angular independent imagery based on swath topographic model is described.

• Journal of Korean Society for Geospatial Information Science
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.65-69
• /
• 2008

This study is aimed to develope a remote control ship for acquisition of various underwater information. Remote control ship equipped with GPS, echosounder, sidescan sonar, subbottom profiler. Remote control ship is an automatic system for acquisition of inland water and coast information. For the development of remote control ship, underwater information acquisition of reservoir, dam, polluted area is expected. Also, multibeam echosounder, image sensor, water analysis sensor, etc. could be equipped in one ship. So robot-ship will be applied for the most part of industry managing water resources and preventing the flood by making bed topographic map and estimating water volumes.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.80-87
• /
• 2011

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) present the important advantage of being able to approach the seafloor more closely than surface vessel surveys can. To collect bathymetric data, bottom material information, and sub-surface images, multibeam echosounder, sidescan sonar (SSS) and subbottom profiler (SBP) equipment mounted on an AUV are powerful tools. The 3000m class AUV URASHIMA was developed by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC). After finishing the engineering development and examination phase of a fuel-cell system used for the vehicle's power supply system, a renovated lithium-ion battery power system was installed in URASHIMA. The AUV was redeployed from its prior engineering tasks to scientific use. Various scientific instruments were loaded on the vehicle, and experimental dives for science-oriented missions conducted from 2006. During the experimental cruise of 2007, high-resolution acoustic images were obtained by SSS and SBP on the URASHIMA around the northern Kumano Basin off Japan's Kii Peninsula. The map of backscatter intensity data revealed many debris objects, and SBP images revealed the subsurface structure around the north-eastern end of our study area. These features suggest a structure related to the formation of the latest submarine fan. However, a strong reflection layer exists below ~20 ms below the seafloor in the south-western area, which we interpret as a denudation feature, now covered with younger surface sediments. We continue to improve the vehicle's performance, and expect that many fruitful results will be obtained using URASHIMA.

• Ocean and Polar Research
• /
• v.42 no.1
• /
• pp.49-61
• /
• 2020

We analyzed the morphological characteristics of OCC (Ocean Core Complexes) in the middle part of the Central Indian Ridge (MCIR) using high-resolution geophysical data recorded on the Deep-Tow SideScan Sonar IMI-30 system. In terms of slope-gradient variations calculated from the high-resolution bathymetry data, the normal faults formed by seafloor spreading were associated generally with slopes > 30° and resulted in high backscatter intensities, which reflect more topographic effects than acoustic medium variation. However, the areas associated with gentle slopes < 10° tend to show the backscatter intensities reflecting the acoustic characteristic of the medium. We show that the detachment faults exposing the OCCs were initiated with high-angle normal faults (58°) exhibiting outward and inward dips of a breakaway zone. In order to examine the spatial distribution of OCC structures, we characterized the transition from magmatic-dominant seafloor with abyssal hills to tectonic-dominant seafloor with OCC using the down-slope direction variation. The slope direction of the seafloor generally tends to be perpendicular to the ridge azimuth in the magmatic-dominant zone, whereas it becomes parallel to the given ridge azimuth near the OCC structures. Therefore, this spatial change of seafloor slope directions indicates that the formation of OCC structures is causally associated with the tectonic-dominant spreading rather than magmatic extension. These results also suggest that the topographical characteristics of seafloor spreading and OCC structures can be distinguished using high-resolution geophysical data. Thus, we propose that the high-resolution bathymetry and backscatter intensity data can help select potential areas of exploitation of hydrothermal deposits in MCIR effectively.