Raytheon Company

Chevron U.s.a. Inc.

Andrew D Wilby

Joseph M Misulia

Emily J Pikor

William Gilmour

Jonathan Pearson Magoon

Steven Borchardt

Joesph M Misulia

A ring assembly of an underwater acoustic sensor (hydrophone) system includes a ring that has brackets that mount the hydrophones evenly circumferentially spaced apart. The ring assembly may have three hydrophones mounted on the ring, with the hydrophones maintained in a triplet configuration. Multiple ring assemblies may be stacked in a nested array, with the hydrophones of adjacent stacked ring assemblies offset circumferentially, with each of the hydrophones overlapping multiple of the stacked rings, with the stacking accomplished such that the ring assemblies are in a helical array. Rings with non-acoustic sensors may be stacked with (and interspersed within) the stacked rings. The stacked array of ring assemblies (and non-acoustic sensor assemblies) may be stored in a canister that facilitates uniform and controlled descent and deployment of the assemblies, with ring assemblies and non-acoustic assemblies paying out sequentially from a float at the top of the array.

Triplet acoustic ring assembly, nested array, and method

A method is disclosed comprising: transmitting a pair of tracking signals, the pair of tracking signals including a first tracking signal and a second tracking signal; receiving a data set that is collected by using a sensor in a sensor array, the data set including: (i) a received first tracking signal that is generated by the sensor in response to receiving the first tracking signal, (ii) a received second tracking signal that is generated by the sensor in response to receiving the second tracking signal, and (iii) a received target signal; detecting a relative delay at which the first tracking signal and the second tracking signal are received by the sensor; removing the received first tracking signal and the received second tracking signal from the data set to produce a filtered data set; and providing the filtered data set and an indication of the relative delay to a beamformer.

Towed array superposition tracker

Methods and apparatus for inspecting an underwater vehicle. In embodiments, a system receives a SAR image for at least a portion of an exterior surface of an underwater vehicle and performs CCD processing to compare a baseline SAS image for the underwater vehicle with the received SAR image of the underwater vehicle to generate a CCD output corresponding to a measure of similarity of the baseline SAS image and the received SAS image. The system determines whether there was tampering of the underwater vehicle based on the measure of similarity.

Underwater vehicle inspection

An underwater celestial navigation beacon configured to provide position information is disclosed. The underwater celestial navigation beacon can include a data store configured to store an astronomical model of the moon. The underwater celestial navigation beacon can include an inertial measurement unit (IMU) operable to capture IMU data that includes three-axis acceleration data and three-axis rate gyroscopic data. The underwater celestial navigation beacon can include a controller. The controller can determine a latitude of the underwater celestial navigation beacon using the three-axis rate gyroscopic data. The controller can determine a longitude of the underwater celestial navigation beacon based on a gravitational pull of the moon, using the three-axis acceleration data and the astronomical model of the moon. The controller can determine the position information for the underwater celestial navigation beacon based on the latitude and longitude.

Underwater celestial navigation beacon

A sensor system includes a triplet element including a first hydrophone, a second hydrophone, and a third hydrophone configured to receive an incoming signal at a first phase, a second phase, and a third phase, respectively, the first to third hydrophones extending along a first direction, and a processor configured to determine an incidence direction of the incoming signal, and to dynamically generate a cardioid null in the incidence direction to reject the incoming signal based on the incoming signal at the first to third phases.

Active towed array surface noise cancellation using a triplet cardioid

An underwater vehicle includes a plurality of releasable panel members that are initially in a storage state in which the releasable panel members form a closed housing and the underwater vehicle is neutrally buoyant, an actuatable effector that is retained in the closed housing. The effector has an anchor and a positively buoyant upper unit opposite the anchor. When the plurality of releasable panel members are released to open the closed housing, the effector is separable from the releasable panel members and maintained in a vertically downward direction by the anchor and the positively buoyant upper unit.

Underwater vehicle having directional effector

An underwater vehicle includes a longitudinal body that defines a longitudinal axis and is rotatable about the longitudinal axis between a forward orientation and a sideways orientation, a wing attached to the longitudinal body that is moveable between a vertically extending wing orientation when the longitudinal body is in the forward orientation and a horizontally extending wing orientation when the longitudinal body is in the sideways orientation, a propulsion system having a front propulsion device and a rear propulsion device that is arranged rearwardly along the longitudinal axis relative to the front propulsion device, and an after-propulsion system arranged at a rear end of the longitudinal body that provides thrust along the longitudinal axis. The secondary propulsion system provides thrust in a perpendicular direction relative to the longitudinal axis.

Winged autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV)

A method and system for facilitating navigation of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) about an egress path that mirrors an ingress path. Complex return data during an ingress cycle are obtained and a corresponding complex image of the seabed along the ingress cycle is generated. Complex return data during an egress cycle are also obtained and a plurality of corresponding complex local images of the seabed along the egress cycle can be generated. The complex local images are compared to the complex ingress image to identify a normalized cross-correlation coefficient (NCCC). A maximum NCCC indicates that a position of the AUV in the along-track direction has been found. Successive local complex images from the egress cycle can be compared against the complex image from the ingress cycle as the AUV moves along the egress path to identify successive NCCCs, and monitored overtime to determine if the successive NCCCs are increasing or decreasing as the AUV moves along the egress path. The path of the AUV can be corrected to mirror the egress path to the ingress path based on the change of the NCCCs as compared to maximum NCCC.

Coherence map navigational system for autonomous vehicle

A method uses an underwater vehicle travelling along an underwater surface projecting high frequency sound at the underwater surface to produce an image of the underwater surface with sufficient along track and cross track resolution to be able to identify cracks or other irregularities in the underwater surface.

Synthetic aperture sonar system for inspecting underwater surfaces

A compensation filter is operable to receive a received signal in response to a transmitted signal, the received signal having a time duration. The compensation filter is operable to generate a compensated signal. The compensation filter changes shape of an associated transfer function during the time duration of the received signal to result in the compensated signal having an improved spectral flatness throughout the time duration of the received signal. The compensation filter can be used in a sonar system. A method, which can be used in a sonar system, uses the compensation filter.

Wideband channel equalization for signals propagated in lossy transmission media

A system and method to detect an object buried beneath the seabed are described. The system includes a moving platform, a low frequency signal source coupled to the platform to transmit a low frequency signal to an area of the seabed, and a laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) coupled to the platform to transmit a plurality of transmission beams to the area of the seabed at a respective plurality of angles at each position of a plurality of positions of the platform over the area. The LDV includes a plurality of receivers that receive a respective plurality of reflection beams resulting from the plurality of transmission beams. A processor develops a three-dimensional image that indicates the object, the processor determining a reflection value at each point of the three-dimensional image as a coherent combination of reflection from the point contributing to each of the plurality of reflection beams.

Laser synthetic aperture sonar for buried object detection

A system for adjusting phase centers of a receiving array in real time. In one embodiment, a transmitter transmits a sequence of pings. Receiving elements are grouped into staves and summed prior to subsequent processing, and the groups are selected so that the phase center on a ping is substantially in the same location as another phase center on a previous ping.

Growing community of inventors

Warwick, RI, United States of America

Andrew D Wilby