The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 06, 2008
Filed:
Aug. 09, 2005
Yasuo Kawabata, Nishinomiya, JP;
Tokihiko Hamada, Nishinomiya, JP;
Hidetoshi Kaida, Nishinomiya, JP;
Yasuo Kawabata, Nishinomiya, JP;
Tokihiko Hamada, Nishinomiya, JP;
Hidetoshi Kaida, Nishinomiya, JP;
Furuno Electric Company, Limited, Hyogo-Ken, JP;
Abstract
A forward-looking sonar includes a transducer array which is divided into a first sub array and a second sub array, a first beamforming section for forming a first receiving beam with the first sub array, and a second beamforming section for forming a second receiving beam with the second sub array. The forward-looking sonar receives target echoes from a wide sounding area with these receiving beams. The forward-looking sonar further includes a position measurement section for determining the position of a target based on the direction of the target calculated from a phase difference between the echoes from the target received by the first and second receiving beams by a split-beam method and the distance to the target calculated from time needed for receiving the echoes after transmission.