Yaw-compensated correlating sonar tracking system - has hydrophone arrays and, signal delay and signal combining circuits to produce pairs of overlapping directional beams

摘要

The system comprises a pair of phased hydrophone arrays located a fixed distance apart along the keel of a ship. The transducer elements of each array are phased and combined to produce pairs of overlapping beams, each beam pair being oriented along a respective azimuth relative to the line joining the two arrays. The signals received by a selected pair of beams of the phased arrays are quantised and sampled before being cross-correlated to determine the precise bearing of the signal source (target) within the directive beams of the arrays. A compensating delay is inserted in the signal data derived from the array having the shorter propagational path to the underwater sound source. The inserted delay is such that signals from the target on the crossover axis of the beams would be brought into time coincidence at the inputs to the signal correlator.