Acoustic seabed characterization with autonomous underwater vehicles

• Published in: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America Vol. 152; no. 4; p. A102
• Main Authors: Lin, Ying-Tsong, Chaytor, Jason, Packard, Gregory, Chen, Tzu-Ting, Kukshtel, Natalie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01-10-2022
• ISSN: 0001-4966; 1520-8524
• DOI: 10.1121/10.0015684

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) have been proven to be useful platforms to for acoustic seabed surveys with a variety of sonar systems. In this talk, results from two recent field experiments will be presented. One of the experiments was conducted in the New England shelf and upper slope areas using an AUV equipped with a towed hydrophone array and a 3.5 kHz sound source. The objective was to study the fine grained sediment (mud) layer on the shelf and the mutli-layer sub-bottom stratigraphy on the upper slope. The highlight of this first experiment is on the internal reflections from the mud layer at lower grazing angles, as well as the sub-bottom layering structure near a submarine landslide site. The other experiment took place at the Atlantis II Seamounts, and a deep water AUV was utilized with payloads including a multibeam echosounder, a sidescan sonar, a sub-bottom profiler, and a still image camera. The objective was to investigate the seafloor condition on the seamount summit plateau, of which the area is about 15 km × 5 km. Survey results showing sediment distributions and benthic marine life habitats will be presented. [Work supported by the Office of Naval Research.]