SBIR-STTR Award

Increase navigational safety of surface vessels through the development of forward looking sonar capable of operating at high speeds. Provide an innovative sonar and mounting or deployment method with minimal cavitation to increase sonar performance while maintaining high speed operational performance of small combatant craft. Existing commercial technologies either in service or under development can be utilized to provide shallow water navigation and obstacle avoidance or alertment. Phase I of this project will result in the development of a sonar system designed to provide navigational data ahead of the vessel for man or unmanned operations. Phase II will result in the production of a prototype designed for testing on an 11 meter RIB.

Benefit:
The yearly world-wide damage cost resulting from vessel groundings due to navigational errors is enormous. From large ships to small surface craft, all classes of vessels are subject to the hazards of navigating in shallow waters. The limiting factor of existing forward looking sonars for navigation is their inability to provide usable navigation data while the vessel is operating at high speeds. Due to this lacking capability, navigational sonars are not being utilized while vessels are transiting shallow waters. The development of forward looking sonar for shallow water navigation operational at high speed would have a broad appeal to the marine industry and has the potential to same millions of dollars annually as a result of reducing groundings.

Keywords:
Forward, Forward, shallow-water, Sonar, high-speed, Navigation, Avoidance, Looking, obstacle