A coherent integration method of an active sonar for maneuvering turning target detection

Kaiyang Hou; Dajun Sun; Tingting Teng; Junjie Hu

doi:10.1121/10.0025927

A coherent integration method of an active sonar for maneuvering turning target detection

J Acoust Soc Am. 2024 May 1;155(5):2973-2989. doi: 10.1121/10.0025927.

Authors

Kaiyang Hou^{1

2

3}, Dajun Sun^{1

2

3}, Tingting Teng^{1

2

3}, Junjie Hu^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ National Key Laboratory of Underwater Acoustic Technology, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China.
² Key Laboratory of Marine Information Acquisition and Security (Harbin Engineering University), Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Harbin 150001, China.
³ College of Underwater Acoustic Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China.

PMID: 38717202
DOI: 10.1121/10.0025927

Abstract

The detection probability of underwater weak targets using active sonar is low, and inter-pulse coherent integration can improve the signal-to-noise ratio of echoes. When a target executes a maneuvering turn, complex range and Doppler frequency migrations occur during the coherent integration time that decrease the coherent integration gain. Most existing integration methods simplify the target motion to a finite-order polynomial model but fail to integrate a maneuvering turning target (MTT) due to model mismatch. Hence, this study proposes an underwater MTT integration method based on the modified Radon-Fourier transform. The proposed method constructs a theoretically accurate motion model for the MTT and a phase compensation function to compensate for the Doppler frequency migration. Furthermore, it yields a well-focused integration peak in the range-velocity and offset angle-turn rate dimensions and accurately estimates the target motion parameters. Moreover, the proposed method is suitable for targets with radial and oblique uniform motions. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through simulations and a lake test. The proposed method demonstrates good integration performance, with an integration gain approximately 4-7 dB higher than that of traditional methods when using 30 integration pulses.