Comments: download pdf.
Ref.: in Int. Conf. on Sonar Systems & Sensors ICONS'18, Kochin (India), 22-24 February
2018 (invited).
Abstract:
This paper presents a tool for determining the optimal formation of a swarm of Autonomous
Underwater Vehicles (AUV) for seismic surveying. Each AUV carries an acoustic streamer so,
the AUV formation implies a space distributed sensor array for bottom imaging. This tool is
based on a sparse formulation of bottom layer reflection resulting on a structured design
matrix with the bottom return field. Since the design matrix structure depends also on the
receiving system characteristics, field coherence is used as optimization criteria for
determining sensor array position and thus the vehicle formation. The receiver positions
are constrained by actual array characteristics and AUV relative position physical constraints.
Simulated results based on actual physical propagation model data are provided for a two sparker
source and four AUV 2D geometry case in the scenario of the port of Sines (Portugal). The results
show that a clear improvement can be reached regarding bottom layer resolution for a 3D bottom
model. The developed methodology may be useful for resource planning and setup of seismic
surveying experiments involving moving sensing arrays such as those under test in the EU H2020
WiMUST project.