Bluefin12 buried mine identification system.

Abstract

The Bluefin12 buried mine identification system, developed under the sponsorship of the Office of Naval Research (ONR) as a close range target reacquire and identify system, is based on the 12.75‐in. unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) developed by Bluefin Robotics. This system is integrated with a multi‐sensor package that consists of the buried object scanning sonar (BOSS) system, a passive multi‐axis real‐time tracking gradiometer and an electro‐optic sensor. The BOSS system is a downward looking sonar system that uses a broad‐band, low‐frequency omni‐directional acoustic projector, and 20‐element hydrophone receive arrays embedded in each of two 1‐m length wings. The BOSS provides detection and classification of not only proud but also partially and fully buried targets. Beam forming and synthetic aperture processing generates multi‐aspect three‐dimensional imagery consisting of X‐Y (top), X‐Z (front), and Y‐Z (side) perspective views providing target dimension and orientation and where the X‐Z and Y‐Z views provide target burial depth information. This paper presents a brief history of the development and integration of the BOSS system on the Bluefin12 UUV and specific results obtained during field surveys and system demonstration tests held in Panama City, FL and other sites.