Electrically steerable spherical hydrophone array

摘要

1. Beam forming apparatus for a spherical array of hydrophones comprising: a spherical array of radially inwardly directed wiper contacts, a compensator inside said spherical array of wiper contacts and including insulator means and a series of circular conducting elements having a common axis secured in said insulator means and presenting a smooth spherical surface sector with the conductor elements exposed at the spherical surface, for wiping engagement with the contacts, training means supporting said compensator concentrically within said array of wiper contacts and operable to arcuately displace said compensator about two axes through the center of said array of contacts, signal delay means and signal summing means carried by said training means inside said array of contacts and coupled to the conducting elements for delaying signals from the progressively smaller conductors by progressively longer time periods and for summing the variously delayed signals, and cooperating brush and slip ring means carried by said training means and said array of wiper contacts for delivering the output of said summing means.