ABSTRACT
Progress in the implementation of state-of-the-art signal processing schemes in sonar systems has been limited mainly by the moderate advancements made in sonar computing architectures and the lack of operational evaluation of the advanced processing schemes. Until recently, sonar computing architectures allowed only fast-Fourier-transform (FFT), vector-based processing schemes because of their ease of implementation and their cost-effective throughput characteristics. Thus, matrix-based processing techniques, such as adaptive, synthetic aperture, and high-resolution processing, could not be efficiently implemented in sonar systems, even though it is widely believed that they have advantages that can address the requirements associated with the difficult operational problems that next-generation sonars will have to solve. Interestingly, adaptive and synthetic aperture techniques may be viewed by other disciplines as conventional schemes. However, for the sonar technology discipline, they are considered as advanced signal processing schemes because of the very limited progress that has been made in their implementation in sonar systems.
