A synthetic aperture parametric sonar for buried object detection

This paper describes an experimental comparison between a parametric sonar and a conventional sonar for the detection of small objects on the seabed. First, a quick description of the parametric sonar used is given. Second, rail and sea experiments are described. The parametric array was mounted on a rail which was able to move at a constant speed (0.25 m/s). As a first experiment the sonar was kept fixed on the rail. A comparison of the detection of the object put on the seabed is performed between conventional sonar and the parametric one. The obtained results show a great improvement brought on by the parametric sonar which is less affected by bottom reverberation and which allows very precise identification of the detected object. As a second experiment, the sonar was moving on the rail in order to be able to perform synthetic aperture sonar processing with the parametric array. Significant improvements in resolution and signal‐to‐noise ratio were obtained when integrating together successive pings tr...