Teledyne Rd Instruments, Inc.

Rowe-deines Instruments, Inc.

Teledyne Instruments, Inc.

Mark A Vogt

Blair H Brumley

Kent L Deines

Fran Rowe

A system and method for forming acoustic beams is disclosed. One embodiment is an acoustic system configured to generate a plurality of beams non-orthogonal to a transducer array simultaneously with a vertical acoustic beam orthogonal to the array. The acoustic system includes a plurality of transducer elements arranged to form a two-dimensional array and electrically connected into rows in a first dimension and columns in a second dimension.

System and method of acoustic doppler beamforming

A system and method of determining a magnetic field and magnetic compass calibration is disclosed. One embodiment is a method of determining a magnetic field vector, the method comprising storing, for each of a plurality of sensor orientations, one or more calibration components, determining, for a sensor orientation not included in the plurality of sensor orientations, a magnetic field vector and a gravity vector, iteratively estimating one or more calibration coefficients based on the stored components, the determined magnetic field vector, and the determined gravity vector, wherein the calibration coefficients are updated during each of a plurality of iterations, and determining a sensor-orientation-independent magnetic field vector based on at least one of the calibration coefficients.

System and method of magnetic compass calibration

A sonar system and method of operating a sonar system are disclosed. In one embodiment, the sonar system comprises an array of transducers and a multiplexer configurable into a plurality of states. In one embodiment, the multiplexer, when in a first state, electrically couples a plurality of connections with the plurality of transducers via a first mapping and, in a second state, electrically couples the plurality of connections with the plurality of transducers via a second mapping.

Multi-state beamforming array

A system and method of range estimation are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method comprises transmitting beams through a medium towards a surface, receiving reflected signals from the surface, and estimating range to the surfaced based on the reflected signals and an estimate of sidelobe coupling of the beams.

System and method of range estimation

A system and method for measuring velocity in a fluid medium utilizing a transducer are disclosed. In one aspect, the method comprises transmitting an acoustic signal comprising N (where N is integer and N&#x3e;1) pings for each of a plurality of beams, receiving echoes from each ping, obtaining a velocity estimate for each of the N pings based on echoes of the ping, and calculating a velocity based on the sum of the N velocity estimates such that the velocity is substantially free from error caused by cross-coupling between the beams.

System and method for acoustic doppler velocity processing with a phased array transducer including using differently coded transmit pulses in each beam so that the cross-coupled side lobe error is removed

A system and method for measuring velocity in a fluid medium utilizing a phased array transducer are disclosed. The phased array transducer comprises a plurality of transducer elements arranged to form a single two-dimensional array. In one aspect, the method comprises receiving echoes of a plurality of beams generated by the transducer, calculating raw velocity estimates based at least in part on the echoes, and removing substantially a bias related to a first velocity from the raw velocity estimates. The first velocity is orthogonal to the face of the two-dimensional array.

System and method for acoustic Doppler velocity processing with a phased array transducer including applying correction factors to velocities orthogonal to the transducer face

A system and method for measuring velocity in a fluid medium utilizing a measuring system are disclosed, wherein the measuring system comprises a transducer. In one aspect, the method comprises transmitting a first set of one or more signals of a bandwidth substantially broader than the bandwidth of the measuring system, receiving echoes from the first set of signals, obtaining a first velocity estimate based at least in part on the echoes from the first set of signals, transmitting a second set of one or more signals of a bandwidth, substantially equal to, or narrower than the bandwidth of the measuring system, receiving echoes from the second set of signals, obtaining two or more possible velocity estimates based at least in part on the echoes from the second set of signals, and selecting one of the possible velocity estimates based on the first velocity estimate.

System and method for acoustic Doppler velocity processing with a phased array transducer including using a wide bandwidth pulse transmission to resolve ambiguity in a narrow bandwidth velocity estimate

An electronic heading and attitude sensing subsystem which is fully integrated with the existing hardware of an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) oceanographic sonar suite to reduce the size and complexity of the apparatus. The subsystem uses a tri-state drive signal with relaxation periods and integration windows to synchronously drive the fluxgate magnetic sensors while reducing the effects of non-linearities and higher order harmonics which may result in heading errors. The present invention includes an electrolytic tilt sensor device and driving circuit which allow measurement of system vertical orientation without the effects of electrolyte conductivity are described. The present invention further includes methods of system calibration, magnetic perturbation modeling, and heading calculation.

Growing community of inventors

San Diego, CA, United States of America

Mark A Vogt