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Dolphins inspire a better kind of sonar
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Dolphins inspire a better kind of sonar
By Darren Quick
2 Comments
21:56 November 17, 2010
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Dolphins were the inspiration for a new type of sonar called twin inverted pulse
sonar (TWIPS)
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By measuring the differences between emitted sound pulses and their echoes sonar
is able to detect and identify targets such as reefs, wrecks, submarines and fish
shoals. However, standard sonar has limitations in shallow water because bubble
http://www.gizmag.com/twin-inverted-pulse-sonar-twips/16980/[10/11/2011 09:21:51]
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Dolphins inspire a better kind of sonar
clouds, which result from breaking waves or other causes, can scatter sound and
clutter the sonar image. Inspired by the exceptional sonar capabilities of dolphins,
scientists have now developed a new underwater device that can outperform
standard sonar and detect objects through bubble clouds.
If I were a dolphin...
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Like many scientific breakthroughs, Professor Timothy Leighton of the University of
Southampton’s Institute of Sound and Vibration Research (ISVR) took inspiration
from nature to develop the new sonar concept called twin inverted pulse sonar
(TWIPS).
“To catch prey, some dolphins make bubble nets in which the best man-made
sonar would not work. It occurred to me that either dolphins were blinding their
sonar when making such nets, or else they have a better sonar system,” said
Leighton.
However, because there were no recordings of the type of sonar that dolphins use
in bubble nets, Leighton wasn’t able to produce a bio-inspired sonar simply by
copying dolphin signals. Instead, he sat down and worked out what pulse he would
use if he were a dolphin.
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The TWIPS system he and his colleagues devised exploits the way that bubbles
pulsate in sound fields, which affects the characteristics of sonar echoes. It does
this by using twinned pairs of sound pulses. The first pulse of each pair has a
waveform that is an inverted replica of that of its twin and is emitted a fraction of a
second before its inverted twin.
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First, Leighton’s team showed that theoretically, TWIPS might be able to enhance
scatter from the target, while simultaneously suppressing clutter from bubbles.
Therefore, in principle, it could be used to distinguish echoes from bubble clouds
and objects that would otherwise remain hidden.
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The team then used a large test tank to test the concept and found that TWIPS
outperformed standard sonar at detecting a small steel disc under bubbly conditions
resembling those found under oceanic breaking waves.
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Encouraged by their findings, the team then headed to sea to conduct more trials.
On Southampton Water, a tidal estuary with a seabed varying in depth between 10
and 20m (33-66 ft) that handles seven percent of the UK’s entire seaborne trade,
they compared the ability of TWIPS and standard sonar to discern the seabed.
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“TWIPS outperformed standard sonar in the wake of large vessels such as
passenger ferries,” said co-author of the study, Dr Justin Dix of the University of
Southampton’s School of Ocean and Earth Science (SOES).
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The University of Southampton team sees possible future marine applications for
TWIPS including harbor protection and the detection of bubbles in marine sediments
and manufacturing. They also say technologies based on the same basic principles
could be used in the medical field for ultrasound imaging – which already uses pairs
of inverted pulses to enhance contrast agents injected into the body – or magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI). Leighton also proposes TWIPR (twin inverted pulse
radar) to detect improvised explosive devices or covert circuitry.
Interestingly, even though dolphins were the inspiration for TWIPS, it’s still not
known whether they actually use such a system.
Key ingredients of a TWIPS system appear in separate species but they have never
been found all together in a single species,” said Leighton. “There is currently no
evidence that dolphins use TWIPS processing, although no-one has yet taken
recordings of the signals from animals hunting with bubble nets in the wild. How
they successfully detect prey in bubbly water remains a mystery that we are working
to solve.”
http://www.gizmag.com/twin-inverted-pulse-sonar-twips/16980/[10/11/2011 09:21:51]
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Dolphins inspire a better kind of sonar
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Dolphins inspire a better kind of sonar
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