LOCAPASS project main objective is to develop an acoustic passive
localization integrated system using a single or a reduced number of acoustic
sensors. The principle is based on the usage of the environmental information
modelled by a numerical propagation model in order to discriminate the perturbation
induced by the active sound source. During the project it is foreseen the
development of a buoy to receive both acoustic and oceanographic information,
with local storage and processing as well as the capacity for online monitoring
and easy integration into a network. The developed buoy was tested at sea,
in the region to the north of Elba I., in Italy, during the MREA'03 sea trial
aboard the R/V ALLIANCEof
the Saclant Undersea Research
Centre between 18 and 26 June 2003. The achievements made during the project
were of two types: scientfic and tecnological. The scientific achievement
encompasses the demonstration of the possibility of localizing submerged targets
in depth and range using a sparse vertical array of sensors in a poorly known
environment (see publicationsfor more details).
The technological achievment relates to the planning, assembling and testing
at sea in real conditions of a versatile system for acoustic and oceanographic
data recording, integrated with real time applications for source localization,
tomography, rapid environmental assessment (REA) and underwater communications
- the AOB, version 0. This systems constitutes a real world class advancement
in acoustic marine technology (see achievements
for additional informations concerning the AOB.V0).