These high-performance, mechanically scanned profiling sonars are a game-changer for subsea measurement. It boasts an impressive 1° Acoustic Angular Resolution, 80-meter range and a 0.35mm timing accuracy, making it ideal for applications like pipeline and trench profiling, as well as asset positioning.

Ready to learn more about the ISP360 and our full range of innovative sensors? Head over to the ISP360 Profiling Sonar page.

Transcript – ISP360 Profiling Sonars – Podcast

Okay, let’s unpack this. Imagine you’re trying to map, say, a complex underwater structure, maybe an oil field, or inspect a pipeline down there. Yeah. You need really precise data and fast. Exactly. And sometimes, you know, one sensor just isn’t enough. But then, how do you get multiple, really powerful systems to play nice together without interfering?

That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it? Well, welcome everyone to a deep dive into some pretty advanced Subsea tech. Today we’re looking at exactly that challenge. Specifically, how Impact Subsea V3 handles dual ISP360 sonars. These are for AUVs and ROVs, right? Those profiler sonars. Our insights are coming straight from an overview that demonstrates how this software actually works in practice.

So, our mission today to really get how these sensors work together, the specific hurdles they overcome and honestly, the kind of surprising precision needed for good underwater data. There are definitely some neat tricks involved. Okay, so here’s where it starts getting really interesting.

Sensor Detection

I think the seaView software V3, it’s smart right from the get-go. Yeah, it is. You power it up and it just automatically finds and connects your Impact Subsea sensors. Scans all the comm ports, network connections, everything. You don’t have to do much initially. Exactly. It’s built for efficiency. Starting a single ISP360 profiler, just a double click. And that’s the sensor that maps the seafloor using sound pulses right on the ROV.

Default Settings

Precisely the ISP360, it creates these detailed 3D pictures underwater and by default it kicks off with a 90° scanning window. 90°. Yeah, like a quarter circle ahead. And the range is set usually about 10m out, but with a minimum range of just under half a meter. Perfect for getting up close. Definitely good for close-up inspection work.

Calibration

So, okay, first sensor is running. Easy enough. Now, what about adding that second profiler? Is it just another double click or is there more to it? Well, it’s not quite plug-and-play at that point. Connecting it is easy, yes, but the crucial part is calibration. Getting them to work together. Calibration. Think of it like getting both your eyes to focus on the same spot. You need to tell the software how they’re positioned relative to each other.

Makes sense. First, there’s the physical offset. The example we looked at mentioned, 1.46 m. You dial that in and visually the two images, the data from both profilers, they just sort of slide together so they overlap correctly. Exactly. So you get a combined picture.

Rotational Offset

But then there’s also the rotational offset. Rotational. What does that mean here? Well, maybe one sensor is tilted just slightly compared to the other. Even a tiny bit, say 3° like in the example. If you don’t correct for that, the data gets skewed, right? Your nice flat seabed might look well warped or worse if you’re laying pipe based on that data. A few degrees off could mean meters off course over distance. Wow. Okay. So, you adjust that rotation to make the seabed look flat in the combined data.

Precisely. And visually, the software helps. By default, one sensor shows up as red points, the other green. Helps you see what’s what, though you can change those colors. That attention to detail is pretty incredible. A few degrees makes that much difference. Sure. So, okay, our sensors are aligned like two eyes working together.

Optimizing Settings

What about the environment? Underwater can be noisy, right? Yeah. How do you get clean data? Good question. It’s all about optimizing the settings and filtering. You can tweak both profilers together using an ‘all’ setting or adjust them one by one.

Okay. So, the source material showed this test tank setup, a rectangular tank, and they had a plastic pipe in there, maybe 2m away, to simulate a pipeline. To focus just on that pipe, you’d adjust the ranges. Maybe set the minimum range to 1m and the maximum to say 2m. That tells the sonar, ignore stuff that’s too close or too far, just show me what’s in the zone. Concentrates the view.

Energy Threshold

Exactly. But then the really crucial bit, especially in noisy places like a test tank, is the energy threshold. Energy threshold. What’s that doing? Think of it like a filter for sound strength. It tells the software, look, ignore any really weak echoes, the faint stuff, that’s usually just noise, acoustic clutter, especially in a tank. Ah, so it cuts out the static pretty much. It ensures you only log the strong clear returns that are actually hitting your target like that pipe. So the data you save for the survey is much cleaner. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah.

Adjusting the Image

You can also view the raw acoustic image too, right? Tweak that. Oh yeah, absolutely. You can adjust, gain, contrast, change the color palette on the raw sonar image if you need to visually pick things out differently.

IS³ Signalling Scheme

Okay, this leads to maybe the biggest challenge I was thinking about. You’ve got two powerful sonars pinging away side by side. How on earth do they not just completely mess up each other’s signals? Acoustic interference seems inevitable, right? You’d think so, but this is where something really clever comes in. It’s fascinating, actually. What’s the secret?

The key is you set one profiler to mode A IS³ acoustics and the other one to mode B IS³ acoustics. Mode A and mode B. Yeah. Essentially, they use different signaling schemes, different ways of sending out and listening for their sound pulses. Like they’re talking on different radio channel. That’s a great analogy. They’re in the same space, but they’re not stepping on each other’s transmissions because the frequencies or patterns are distinct. So, no acoustic interference.

So, the software handles that switching or do you have to set it manually? You select mode A for one and mode B for the other. Often other acoustic settings can just be left on auto. The system’s pretty smart. But separating them into mode A and B is fundamental for dual operation. That is ingenious. Solves a huge potential problem. Absolutely. And once you’ve got all that dialed in, the offsets, the ranges, the threshold, the modes, the system just works.

Data Output

And the output, where does all this clean data go? It streams it out usually to a log file you can analyze later or it can send it directly to like a third party computer or another application. You just configure the comm the example use COM3 at a high speed 115200 baud and it sends the process data right over ready for immediate analysis for pipeline routes seabed maps whatever the mission requires precise object identification mapping you name it.

Conclusion

So, we’ve really seen the meticulous setup involved here, making two advanced sensors act like one seamless system. It really shows how crucial sophisticated software is to unlock what the hardware can do. It really does. And you know, this coordination, it raises a bigger question, I think. Yeah. Go on. How fundamental this idea is. You mean the coordinated interference-free operation, making sure sensors can talk without drowning each other out?

Exactly. It’s critical for subsea. Sure. But think about it everywhere else, right? Complex systems we rely on every day. Self-driving cars with multiple sensors, medical imaging. True. They all need multiple eyes or ears sharing the same space.

So the thought for you, our listener, is this. As we put more and more sensors into complex environments, what new challenges pop up? And what kinds of clever solutions like these acoustic modes will we need to invent next to ensure everything works together without getting tangled? Something to think about.

Find out more about the ISP360 Profiling Sonar.