Wavelet-based acoustic seabed discrimination system

In almost any underwater operation that takes place on or under the seafloor, it is necessary to have an understanding of the makeup of the seabed below the silt and sediment. Sonar is an acoustic system extensively used for underwater inspection as well as seabed classification. In this paper, the problem of automatic segmentation and classification of seafloor using automatic acoustic seabed discrimination systems is discussed and a new split and merge algorithm based on the concept of standard wavelet transform is presented. Experimental results on true prototype data indicate the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.