According to "Ocean Skills" magazine, after more than ten years of unremitting efforts and the continuous support of the two "five-year plans" of the 863 Program, the "high-resolution sounding side-scan sonar" independently developed by Chinese scientists has made a major breakthrough. This indicates that China has successfully broken the world skill blockade in sonar skills for detecting high-resolution seabed topography, and now has the skills and ability to manufacture high-resolution bathymetric side-scan sonar with world advanced level.
"High-resolution bathymetric side-scan sonar" is an acoustic detection instrument, which can accurately detect the seabed height and seabed landform and distinguish the echoes arriving in different directions, and is used in complex seabed areas and complex sound fields. The Institute of Acoustics of Chinese Academy of Sciences began to study the related theories of side-scan sonar in the 1980s, and formed a relatively complete theoretical system of high-resolution side-scan sonar, including model, signal processing skills, sonar array design, error analysis and accuracy evaluation, which was used to guide the design of sonar. ?
The national 863 plan has set up two topics, namely "high-resolution bathymetric side-scan sonar" and "research and development of shallow water high-resolution bathymetric scanning sonar system", with a total funding of 6.5438+million yuan. The former is jointly undertaken by Institute of Acoustics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and CSIC 702. After nearly five years of joint research, the research group has successfully developed the first acoustic deep towing system with 4000-meter-high resolution sounding side-scan sonar in China, which can detect high-resolution seabed topography near the seabed. The latter task is undertaken by Institute of Acoustics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, which enables high-resolution sounding side-scan sonar to work in shallow water. Through the research work of these two topics, Chinese scientists have solved the defects of poor sounding accuracy and inability to accurately distinguish complex areas of sound field, such as rugged and violent areas on the seabed or areas with interface influence in shallow water. The developed sonar system can obtain high-resolution underwater topography and landforms together near the bottom of the water, and after post-processing, it can obtain higher-resolution isobath and landforms than conventional multi-beam bathymetric sonar, thus improving sonar performance to a new level.
The acoustic deep towing system with high-resolution side-scan sonar developed by the research team was tested in the South China Sea from June 5 to1October 5, 2006, and the test was successful once. The system can work under the sea condition of no more than level 4, with the maximum water depth of 3690 meters and stable towing performance. Sonar has obtained high-resolution topographic and geomorphological data of the deep sea. Through the analysis of the flat-bottom exploration data in the sea trial area, the accuracy of sonar sounding exceeds the requirements of IHO (World Hydrographic Organization) specification. The shallow water high-resolution sounding side-scan sonar system developed by the research group has also completed the sea trial operation, and has been used in the security operation of the 2006 Qingdao World Regatta, successfully completing the scheduled task. ?
This set of high-resolution bathymetric side-scan sonar independently developed in China has the characteristics of high resolution, low power consumption and small size. This sonar research and development skill has now won a national invention patent and an American invention patent. The system is suitable for being installed on towed submersibles, underwater robots, remote-controlled submersibles and other carriers, and can be used for high-resolution topographic survey in marine mineral resources development, marine engineering, marine development, offshore oil fields and other fields, as well as detection of small underwater targets and underwater targets. , meets the urgent needs of China in the above-mentioned fields, and has a very broad market prospect.