US 12,216,205 B2
Sonar system and method
Remmer Cornelis Meijer, Lower Hutt (NZ); Eugene Stytsenko, Lower Hutt (NZ); and Neil Llewellyn Scott, Lower Hutt (NZ)
Assigned to Electronic Navigation Limited, Auckland (NZ)
Appl. No. 17/639,728
Filed by Callaghan Innovation, Lower Hutt (NZ)
PCT Filed Sep. 16, 2020, PCT No. PCT/IB2020/058584
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Mar. 2, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/053515, PCT Pub. Date Mar. 25, 2021.
Claims priority of application No. 757350 (NZ), filed on Sep. 17, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0326377 A1, Oct. 13, 2022
Int. Cl. G01S 15/88 (2006.01); G01S 7/56 (2006.01)
CPC G01S 15/88 (2013.01) [G01S 7/56 (2013.01)] 22 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A sonar system for transmitting and/or receiving sonar beams through a body of water with a desired beam width in a far-field, comprising:
a transducer comprising a linear array of transducer elements, the transducer being driven by element driving signals to project a sonar beam and generating element receive signals in response to a received sonar signal or sonic wave; and
a control unit operatively connected to the transducer, the control unit comprising:
a transmission module that comprises a waveform generator that is configured to generate a single waveform signal, and which is configured to generate the element driving signals from the single waveform signal based on a set of drive pattern weightings associated with the desired beam width to project from the transducer, and the set of drive pattern weightings being an ordered set or sequence of real numbers, one drive pattern weighting for each transducer element, and where an order of the set of drive pattern weightings corresponds to an order of the transducer elements in the linear array, and wherein each of the element driving signals generated for a respective transducer element of the linear array of transducer elements represents a copy of the single waveform signal modified by an applied respective drive pattern weighting of the set of drive pattern weightings; and
a reception module that is configured to apply a set of receive pattern weightings to the element receive signals to general weighted element receive signals, the set of receive pattern weightings associated with the desired beam width to be detected or sensed by the sonar system, and which generates a single output signal based on a sum of the weighted element receive signals, the single output signal representing a desired sonar beam to be received, and the set of receive pattern weightings being an ordered set or sequence of real numbers, one receive pattern weighting for each transducer element, and where an order of the set of receive patterns weightings corresponds to an order of the transducer elements in the linear array, and
wherein each drive pattern weighting of the set of drive pattern weightings and each receive pattern weighting of the set of receive pattern weightings comprises an amplitude component and a polarity component, and wherein the polarity component of each drive pattern weighting and each receive pattern weighting is a binary selection between positive or negative.