Provided are a sonar system and transducer assembly for producing a 3D image of an underwater environment. The sonar system may include a housing mountable to a watercraft having a transmit transducer that may transmit sonar pulses into the water. The system may include at least one sidescan transducer array in the housing that receives first and second sonar returns with first and second transducer elements and converts the first and second returns into first and second sonar return data. A sonar signal processor may then generate a 3D mesh data using the first and second sonar return data and at least a predetermined distance between the transducer elements. An associated method of using the sonar system is also provided.

A system for presenting sonar beam indicators on charts for noting the direction of the sonar beam is provided herein. The system includes one or more transducer elements and a bearing sensor configured to measure a bearing associated with the one or more transducer elements during receipt of the sonar returns. A marine electronics device is configured to receive sonar return data from the one or more transducer elements and generate sonar images based thereon. The marine electronics device further is configured to determine a watercraft location, receive a measured bearing, plot a watercraft indicator on a navigation chart, and cause a sonar beam indicator to be displayed in association with the watercraft indicator based on the measured bearing. The sonar beam indicator displays an indication of the direction in which the one or more transducer elements are facing when the sonar return data was received.

Ranging systems operate based on the transmission and receipt of pseudorandom sequences. Pseudorandom sequences may be generated and assigned to specific transmitters, which may operate simultaneously to transmit signals including the pseudorandom sequences. A receiver may be programmed to recognize the specific pseudorandom sequences within data captured by the receiver, and to associate the pseudorandom sequences with the transmitters that transmitted them. Upon identifying the pseudorandom sequences, the receiver or one or more associated components may calculate times of flight of signals transmitted by the respective transmitters. Such times of flight may be used to calculate distances to one or more objects from which the signals were reflected.

Sensor receiver nulls and null steering. One example embodiment is method in which a direction from a sensor position to a noise source is determined. A coordinate rotation is applied to a first set of signal values, wherein each signal value of the first set of signal values is based on an output of a corresponding component of a three-component particle motion sensor at the sensor position. The applying generates a rotated set of signal values. The coordinate rotation comprises a coordinate rotation transforming a first set of coordinate axes to a second set of coordinate axes, wherein the first set of coordinate axes has each coordinate axis aligned with a corresponding component of the three-component particle motion sensor at the sensor position, and the second set of coordinate axes comprises a first axis pointed in a direction opposite the direction from the sensor position to the noise source.

An underwater work system of the present disclosure acquires a relative position of an underwater vehicle relative to a surface ship at the start of searching work, the relative position being measured based on a sound wave transmitted from a wave transmitter. The underwater work system calculates a position of the underwater vehicle based on the acquired relative position. When a measurement error region whose center corresponds to the calculated position of the underwater vehicle and an expected laid region of a pipeline extending in a predetermined direction overlap each other, the underwater work system moves the underwater vehicle to such a position that the measurement error region and the expected laid region do not overlap each other, and then, makes the underwater vehicle perform crossing detection in which the underwater vehicle detects the presence or absence of the pipeline while crossing the expected laid region.

A system for searching for underground entities in ground of an area, including a search probe configured to generate and deliver an acoustic signal into the ground of the area, wherein the acoustic signal uses a low frequency signal so that wavelengths of the acoustic signal are between 0.01-500 times the depth to the sought underground entity, two or more sensors positioned on the ground at about an equal distance from the search probe at different angles, an analysis device that receives measurements from the two or more sensors in the form of a measured echo signal responsive to the delivered acoustic signal, wherein said analysis device designates pairs of sensors and subtracts their echo signals to identify a difference indicating the existence of an underground entity.

A sensor control device includes a plurality of drive units for oscillating respective transducers included in a plurality of ultrasonic sensors, a driving signal generation section for generating driving signals capable of oscillating the respective plurality of transducers, a control unit having a control signal output section for outputting, to each one of the plurality of drive units, a control signal as an input command for the driving signal to the respective transducer and a bus line configured to connect the control unit to the plurality of drive units in form of a daisy-chain, the bus line being used for bidirectional communication of communication data between the control unit and the plurality of drive units based on preset time-division, the communication data being comprised of a data structure having a first band that allows superimposition of audio data thereon. Control data based on the control signal is included in the first band.

Disclosed is a method for transmitting data via a vehicle data bus from an ultrasonic system, which comprises at least one ultrasonic transmitter and an ultrasonic receiver, to a data processing device, wherein predetermined signal profile characteristics are extracted from the echo signal received by the at least one ultrasonic receiver of the ultrasonic system. Echo signal data, which represent signal profile characteristics extracted from the echo signal, is created. Said echo signal data is transmitted from the ultrasonic system via the vehicle data bus to the data processing device.

A device and method for identifying a position of an object uses a comparison value is calculated based on a first distance and first angle measured by a first distance sensor. This value is compared with a second distance or a second angle measured by a second distance sensor. Based on the result of the comparison, it is concluded whether the object is located above or below a predefined height over a first sensor plane in which the first distance sensor is situated. An angle of greater than zero degrees is situated in this case between a first sensor axis of the first distance sensor and a second sensor axis of the second distance sensor.

A method for determining presence of an object via a vehicular radar sensing system includes providing a radar sensor having a plurality of antennas, which includes a plurality of transmitting antennas and a plurality of receiving antennas. The plurality of antennas includes a plurality of sets of antennas, each set having a V shape or an X shape, and with each of the shaped sets of antennas having an apex. A signal feed is provided to the apex of each of the shaped sets of antennas. A radar beam is transmitted via the plurality of transmitting antennas and side lobes of the transmitted radar beam are reduced via the plurality of shaped sets of antennas. An output of the receiving antennas is communicated to a processor, and the processor determines presence of one or more objects exterior the vehicle and within the field of sensing of the radar sensor.