SAS and vehicle stability constraints

This paper gives a summary of synthetic aperture sonar technology, especially from the point of view of SAS design with respect to beamforming and micro-navigation constraints. In the first part of this paper, we recall the principle of synthetic aperture processing and self-calibration micro-navigation technique based on ping-to-ping cross-correlation (P/sup 2/C/sup 2/). The second part is dedicated to the analysis of the constraints applicable on synthetic aperture sonar design regarding coverage rate, P/sup 2/C/sup 2/ performances and vehicle stability. The way to take into account vehicle stability in sonar design is explained, and an abacus facilitating the choice of a self-calibration method, regarding the design complexity versus performances are presented.