Interferometric synthetic aperture sonar for high resolution 3-D mapping of the seabed

A technique is described and demonstrated for generating high-resolution 3-D images of the objects on the seabed, combining synthetic aperture sonar with bathymetric (interferometric) processing. This has applications in surveying of oil wells, pipelines and shipwrecks, and in defence in mine hunting. It is shown that the technique is very sensitive to platform motion errors, and ways are discussed by which the errors may be estimated and compensated. Practical results obtained with an experimental system in a test tank are presented and discussed, and a number of areas for further work are identified