Acoustic backscattering by deepwater fish measured in situ from a manned submersible

An outstanding problem in fisheries acoustics is the depth dependence of scattering characteristics of swimbladder-bearing fish, and the effects of pressure on the target strength of physoclistous fish remain unresolved. In situ echoes from deepwater snappers were obtained with a sonar transducer mounted on a manned submersible next to a low-light video camera, permitting simultaneous echo recording and identification of species, fish size and orientation. The sonar system, consisting of a transducer, single board computer, hard disk, and analog-to-digital converter, used a 80 μs, broadband signal (bandwidth 35 kHz, center frequency 120 kHz). The observed relationship between fish length and in situ target strength shows no difference from the relationship measured at the surface. No differences in the species-specific temporal echo characteristics were observed between surface and in situ measures. This indicates that the size and shape of the snappers’ swimbladders are maintained both at the surface and at depths of up to 250 m. Information obtained through controlled backscatter measurements of tethered, anesthetized fish at the surface can be applied to free-swimming fish at depth. This is the first published account of the use of a manned submersible to measure in situ scattering from identified, individual animals with known orientations. The distinct advantage of this technique compared with other in situ techniques is the ability to observe the target fish, obtaining accurate species, size, and orientation information.     

Measurement of seabed topography by multibeam sonar using CFFT

A precise ocean bottom map for ocean surveying and dredging is desired. Especially in dredging, it is essential to know the seabed topography in real time without being affected by scatterers (for example floating sand and mud) in the seawater during work. To meet these requirements, the multi-narrow-beam sonar system (MBSS) has been developed. The MBSS forms beams with the use of the complex fast Fourier transform (CFFT) algorithm. In the MBSS, arithmetic mean processing is employed to eliminate echo from scatterers and the measurement error due to the oblique incident angle is reduced by peak value detection processing. By using these processes, an ocean bottom map can be accurately obtained. It is both theoretically and experimentally shown that the distribution of echo intensity from scatterers is approximated by the Rayleigh probability density function. The arithmetic mean of four to eight successively received echoes from scatterers reduces the variance of the echo intensity distribution by 6 to 12 dB.     

Non-Rayleigh acoustic scattering characteristics of individual fish and zooplankton

It has long been known that the statistical properties of acoustic echoes from individual fish can have non-Rayleigh characteristics. The statistical properties of echoes from zooplankton are generally less understood. In this study, echoes from individual fish and zooplankton from a series of laboratory measurements from the past decade are investigated. In the experiments, acoustic echoes from various individual organisms were measured over a wide range of frequencies and orientations, typically in 1/spl deg/-3/spl deg/ increments. In the analysis in this paper, the echoes from most of those measurements are grouped according to ranges of orientation, which correspond to typical orientation distributions of these organisms in the natural ocean environment. This grouping provides a distribution of echo values for each range of orientation. This approach, in essence, emulates a field experiment whereby distributions of echoes would be recorded for different distributions of orientations of the organisms. For both the fish and zooplankton data, there are conditions under which the echoes are strongly non-Rayleigh distributed. In some cases, the distribution is quantitatively connected to the physics of the scattering process while, in other cases, the connection is described qualitatively. Exploitation of the animal-specific statistics for classification purposes is suggested.     

Active sonar detection in shallow water using the Page test

The use of active sonar in shallow water results in received echoes that may be considerably spread in time compared to the resolution of the transmitted waveform. The duration and structure of the spreading and the time of occurrence of the received echo are unknown without accurate knowledge of the environment and a priori information on the location and reflection properties of the target. A sequential detector based on the Page test is proposed for the detection of time-spread active sonar echoes. The detector also provides estimates of the starting and stopping times of the received echo. This signal segmentation is crucial to allow further processing such as more accurate range and bearing localization, depth localization, or classification. The detector is designed to exploit the time spreading of the received echo and is tuned as a function of range to the expected signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) as determined by the transmitted signal power, transmission loss, approximate target strength, and the estimated noise background level. The theoretical false alarm and detection performance of the proposed detector, the standard Page test, and the conventional thresholded matched filter detector are compared as a function of range, echo duration, SNR, and the mismatch between the actual and assumed SNR. The proposed detector and the standard Page test are seen to perform better than the conventional thresholded matched filter detector as soon as the received echo is minimally spread in time. The use of the proposed detector and the standard Page test in active sonar is illustrated with reverberation data containing target-like echoes from geological features, where it was seen that the proposed detector was able to suppress reverberation generated false alarms that were detected by the standard Page test     

Acoustic stereo images of the bottom surface

In order to enhance the efficiency of the interpretation of surface images obtained with a side scanning sonar, it is proposed to supplement the standard processing software with a program for obtaining acoustic stereo images. Examples of such images synthesized with this program using the data of a bottom sonar survey with a side scanning sonar and an echo sounder are presented. The cases are considered when the information on the bottom relief contained in sonar images obtained with a standard side scanning sonar or its modifications can be used instead of the data of an echo sounding survey.     

Digital system for recording fish echoes

A system to record digitised echo information from echo sounders has been developed as part of a project to improve methods of estimating the abundance of fish stocks around New Zealand. The depth of echoes appearing at the echo‐sounder receiver is determined, followed by a sequence of samples of the echo envelope defining its shape. All data are digitised and recorded on a seven‐track digital magnetic tape recorder. The system is designed to preserve as much information about the echoes as possible. In contrast to other published systems designed to either “count” or “integrate” fish echoes, this system allows free choice of methods of analysis.     

A range-dependent echo-association algorithm and its application insplit-beam sonar tracking of migratory salmon in the Fraser Riverwatershed

Fish sonars have long been used to survey and monitor migratory salmon in rivers and at sea. However, research has been lacking in the development of algorithms to extract fish tracks from data collected in a riverine or oceanic environment. Current fish trackers, based on a pulse-to-pulse tracking method, only work well under ideal conditions when targets are well separated and the signal-to-noise ratio is high. Fisheries biologists often have to identify fish traces visually from raw echograms. This approach is both labor-intensive and time-consuming, limiting the usefulness of hydroacoustic techniques for fisheries management. This paper presents a fish-tracking algorithm which sorts randomly distributed echoes into coherent fish traces. Fish counts obtained with the algorithm compare well with visual counts at two quite different sites in the Fraser River watershed. The key features of the algorithm are: (1) the linking mechanisms among sequential fish echoes are range-dependent; (2) the growth echo for a developing track depends not only on its space-time relation with the previous track echo (the pulse-to-pulse statistics) but also on its relation to the entire track being constructed; (3) there are a total of only five echo-association criteria in the algorithm; (4) the simplicity of the algorithm structure provides a convenient platform for implementing specific and sophisticated tracking criteria to meet specific needs; and (5) the user can fully control the performance of the algorithm by choosing values for the 11 well-defined tracking parameters     

鱼群回声积分仪的功能、结构分析及模拟组装的探讨

本文对鱼群回声积分仪的理论基础及其基本功能和结构作了简要的阐述和分析。在此基础上,对利用现有的高性能鱼探仪和通用计算模拟数字式积分仪进行组装的可能性,以及如何设计一种合适的接口装置进行了探讨。     

Biomimetic sonar locates and recognizes objects

An active sonar is described that adaptively changes its location and configuration in response to the echoes it observes in order to locate an object, position it at a known location, and identify it using features extracted from the echoes. The sonar consists of a center transmitter flanked by two receivers that can rotate and is positioned at the end of a robot arm that has five degree-of-freedom mobility. The sonar operates in air using Polaroid transducers that are resonant at 60 kHz with a nominal wavelength equal to 6 mm. The emitted pulse has a short duration with a useful bandwidth extending from 20 to 130 kHz. Using binaural information, the transmitter rotates to position an echo-producing object on its axis to maximize the acoustic intensity incident on the nearest echo-producing feature. The receivers rotate to maximize the echo amplitude and bandwidth. These optimizations are useful for differentiating objects. The system recognizes a collection of ball bearings, machine washers, and rubber O-rings of different sizes ranging from 0.45 to 2.54 cm, some differing by less than 1 mm in diameter. Learning is accomplished by extracting vectors of 32 echo envelope values acquired during a scan in elevation and forming a data base. Recognition is accomplished by comparing a single observed echo vector with the data base to find the least squared error match. A bent-wire paper clip illustrates the recognition of an asymmetric pose-dependent object     

ACOUSTIC SCATTERING MEASUREMENT OF FISH

The method of acoustic backscattering measurement from different parts of fish using the focus array of transducer developed recently is described in this paper. The results of the measurements of several kinds of flsh are given in this paper, indicating that the backscattering from fish is closely relative to the anatomy of fish. Its application in forming backscattering model of fish and that in using this model to obtain the information of fish kinds by the echoes from fish sonar are discussed.     

Estimating backscattering strength for a correlation log

A correlation log is a type of sonar system used for measuring the velocity of a surface vessel or of a submersible vehicle. The operation is similar to that of a conventional echo sounder, and the direction of acoustic propagation is vertically downwards. Since a correlation log can be used for either bottom tracking or water tracking, it is of interest to relate the transmitted power level to the echo levels from both bottom and volume scatterers, which is a means of predicting the log's performance. This is done by modeling the transmission channel in terms of the sonar equations     

Some experiments and considerations for development of Doppler-based riverine sonars

Sonar counting devices have been utilized by fisheries biologists to estimate annual spawning migrations of anadromous salmon. Recent developments in signal detection based on the Doppler principle, and new information on fish sound scattering characteristics at the high frequencies used in riverine sonar, should result in much improved detection and classification capability. These are discussed along with some practical considerations for the deployment of sonar devices for counting fish in rivers.     

基于CAATI技术的条带测深/侧扫声纳系统C3D-LPM

侧扫声纳及多波束测深仪是应用非常广泛的海底地形地貌调查仪器。通过对侧扫声纳和多波束测深优缺点的对比分析,介绍了基于CAATI技术将高分辨率的侧扫图像和高质量的测深数据完美结合,生成高质量的三维图像的条带测深/侧扫声纳系统C3D-LPM,特别介绍了条带测深/侧扫声纳系统C3D-LPM的构造和技术规格。仪器实地使用结果表明,该仪器完全能够满足海洋工程和研究的需求,并具有其独特的技术特点和使用优势。     

"Principal component inverse" algorithm for detection in thepresence of reverberation

Detection in the presence of reverberation is often difficult in active sonar, due to the reflection/diffusion/diffraction of the transmitted signal by the ocean surface, ground, and volume. A modelization of reverberation is often used to improve detection because classical algorithms are inefficient. A commonly used reverberation model is colored and nonstationary noise. This model leads to elaborate detection algorithms which normalize and whiten reverberation. In this paper, we focus on a more deterministic model which considers reverberation as a sum of echoes issued from the transmitted signal. The Principal Component Inverse (PCI) algorithm is used with this model to estimate and delete the reverberation echoes. A rank analysis of the observation matrix shows that PCI is efficient in this configuration under some conditions, such as when the transmitted signal is Frequency Modulated. Both methods are validated with real sonar surface reverberation noise. We show that whitening has poor performance when reverberation and target echo have the same properties, while PCI maintains the same performance whatever the reverberation characteristics. Further, we extend the algorithms to spatio-temporal data. We propose a new algorithm for PCI which allows better echo separation. This new method is shown to be more efficient on real spatio-temporal data     

Seafloor acoustic remote sensing with multibeam echo-sounders and bathymetric sidescan sonar systems

This paper examines the potential for remote classification of seafloor terrains using a combination of quantitative acoustic backscatter measurements and high resolution bathymetry derived from two classes of sonar systems currently used by the marine research community: multibeam echo-sounders and bathymetric sidescans sonar systems. The high-resolution bathymetry is important, not only to determine the topography of the area surveyed, but to provide accurate bottom slope corrections needed to convert the arrival angles of the seafloor echoes received by the sonars into true angles of incidence. An angular dependence of seafloor acoustic backscatter can then be derived for each region surveyed, making it possible to construct maps of acoustic backscattering strength in geographic coordinates over the areas of interest. Such maps, when combined with the high-resolution bathymetric maps normally compiled from the data output by the above sonar systems, could be very effective tools to quantify bottom types on a regional basis, and to develop automatic seafloor classification routines.     

基于回波时间的多波束测深与声纳数据匹配方法

以多波束精确的水深数据为参照源,采用原始回波时间对多波束测深数据与其同源声纳数据进行匹配,从而获得高精度和高分辨率的海底影像数据,并避免了传统声纳图像处理过程中斜距改正所带来的几何形变。匹配结果采用光照图输出,并与三维水深图、原始声纳图像和CARIS处理后的声纳图像进行比较分析。该方法有效地提高了多波束数据的利用率,增强了对海底地形的探测分辨率。     

Signal recovery in a reverberation-limited environment

The problem of recovering signals masked by reverberation is considered. Reverberation data from a shallow-water active sonar experiment in conjunction with simulated echoes are used to examine the potential for signal recovery offered by adaptive filtering and prediction. The deterministic least squares lattice filter is the central adaptive estimator of choice. The prediction error lattice is used to selectively "whiten" the composite process by controlling the algorithm adaptation speed. This is shown to result in significant signal enhancement for low-Doppler echoes masked by reverberation. Adaptive noise canceling with multiple reference beams is shown to be successful in extracting even zero-Doppler echoes from the reverberation background.     

Fish detection and identification using neural networks-somelaboratory results

Tests on laboratory data on the use of neural networks to detect and identify fish from their sonar echoes are reported. Results are quite encouraging; simple three-layer perceptrons trained on a portion of the data set are able to recognize over 80% of the targets on the remainder of the data set. Parallel networks are found to be very effective, and a parallel combination of two networks (feature fusion), one trained on the original data and the other trained on the data preprocessed through a peak detector, performs significantly better than either network acting alone. In the test cases, over 90% of the targets were identified correctly by the parallel combination. In the simpler detection problem, where the objective is only to detect the presence of fish and not make a complete identification, success rates of over 98% were obtained using a parallel combination as described above. For the fish detection problem, with incomplete training data, correct responses are still obtained in over 95% of the test cases