A deeper connection

Key features of the WASSP (Wide Angle Sonar Seafloor Profiler) include a 120-degree sonar view of the water column, the ability to profile the seafloor and show where schools of fish are, and where changes in seafloor hardness occur.

The research partnership builds on an already fruitful ten-year collaboration and aims to deliver more successes like the Wide Angle Sonar SeafloorProfiler (WASSP), a unique seafloor mapping system now marketed in more than 20 countries.

ENL Managing Director Neil Anderson says he is confident that the agreement will significantly contribute to ENL’s product development plans over the next five years.

“IRL has core technology expertise that, when added to ENL’s R&D engineering team, combines to produce a world-class R&D team with a proven track record of delivering innovative sonar products to our customer base,” he says.

The Advanced Sonar Technologies programme — which involves in-kind and direct co-funding from both parties — will deliver a number of new products incorporating innovations in the area of hardware design, transducers and signal processing techniques developed by both ENL and IRL teams.

“The new products will improve our customers’ understanding of the marine environment — loweringtheir costs, improving their decision making,enhancing the marine environment through better resource use and improving vessel safety,” says Anderson.

ENL first approached IRL more than ten years ago with a request to develop a sonar electronic module, after seeing a gap in the market for lower cost multiple beam sonars. Where overseas tenders were unable to meet price and performance requirements, IRL’s Electroceramics Lab was able to design a sonar transducer to comply with ENL’s specification.

It made the prototype and manufactured the first batch of 100 transducers, which ENL assembled, tested and further developed with the primary aim of use in the commercial fishing market.

All the while IRL continued building its expertise in sonar research and development, first under the Forward Looking Sonar (FLS) project and now under the Advanced Sonar Technologies programme (AST).

“The FLS project provided the opportunity to design and develop innovative electronic hardware, transducers and manufacturing technology solutions that are appropriate to ENL's present and future needs,” says Dr Eugene Stytsenko, science leader of IRL’s sonar programme. “This motivated ENL to continue collaboration with IRL in the sonar field.”

In the process, ENL accumulated expertise and experience in the sonar technology field which allowed it to successfully absorb some of the results of the FLS project, says Dr Stytsenko.

The transducer manufacturing technology has now been transferred to ENL, which has set up a manufacturing facility, strengthening its position in the sonar market.

“The new agreement also provides IRL with the ideal ability to draw on ENL's knowledge of sonar market trends, current sonar technologies and market needs, and helps focus the research undertaken at IRL so that it is always commercially appropriate while simultaneously advancing our capability in the area,” says Dr Stytsenko.

The research areas involved in advanced sonar span a number of different capabilities within IRL: electro-ceramics, acoustics, signal processing, electronic hardware, embedded firmware and software design.

“This reinforces the strength of an organisation like IRL where capabilities can be combined in different ways to build a new, unique capability in a particular application area,” he says.

Says Dr Diana Siew, head of IRL’s Engineering and Applied Physics group: “The investment from ENL means we have been able to effectively tailor a research programme for ENL and build an R&D partnership that will underpin future product innovation for the company.”

(SIDEBAR) Sonar gets smarter

The Advanced Sonar Technologies programme applies multi-disciplinary capabilities within IRL to three main areas of sonar research: the development of new transducers, signal processing algorithms and electronic hardware.

• Sonar transducers are 'piezoelectric’ devices that translate electrical signals into mechanical energy in the acoustic frequency range and vice versa. Applied underwater, and by combining the individual transducer elements into novel array geometries, it is possible to configure and control the propagation and reception of these acoustic ‘beams’ in ways that may be manipulated for the high-resolution detection of targets such as the seafloor, fish shoals and other artefacts.
• Signal processing techniques mathematically manipulate the sonar data in ways that improve overall sonar system Performance. Advanced algorithms are applied in conjunction with transducer innovations to render two- and three-dimensional, high resolution outputs for display.
• The sonar hardware designs provide the ability to convert multiple channels of digital data into multiple channels of electrical signals or vice versa. New design approaches maximise the use of digital technologies and provide flexible, cost-effective products. Hardware designs utilise innovations developed by new signal processing algorithms and transducer arrays.