• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.221-228
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• 2020

A sonobuoy is dropped onto the surface of water to estimate the bearing of an underwater target. A Directional Frequency Analysis and Recording (DIFAR) sonobuoy has an error in the specific angular section due to the method of estimating bearing and noise, which causes an error in target localization using multiple sonobuoys. In addition, the position of the sonobuoy continues to move, but since a sonobuoy with a GPS is intermittently arranged, it is difficult to estimate the exact position of the sonobuoy. This also causes target localization performance degradation. In this paper, we propose a technique to improve the target localization performance by compensating for bearing errors using characteristics of the DIFAR sonobuoy and multiple-sonobuoy position errors based on the intermittently arranged active sonobuoy with a GPS.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.214-224
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• 2024

Sonobuoys are disposable devices that utilize sound waves for information gathering, detecting engine noises, and capturing various acoustic characteristics. They play a crucial role in accurately detecting underwater targets, making them effective detection systems in anti-submarine warfare. Existing sonobuoy deployment methods in multistatic systems often rely on fixed patterns or heuristic-based rules, lacking efficiency in terms of the number of sonobuoys deployed and operational time due to the unpredictable mobility of the underwater targets. Thus, this paper proposes an optimal sonobuoy placement strategy for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to overcome the limitations of conventional sonobuoy deployment methods. The proposed approach utilizes reinforcement learning in a simulation-based experimental environment that considers the movements of the underwater targets. The Unity ML-Agents framework is employed, and the Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) algorithm is utilized for UAV learning in a virtual operational environment with real-time interactions. The reward function is designed to consider the number of sonobuoys deployed and the cost associated with sound sources and receivers, enabling effective learning. The proposed reinforcement learning-based deployment strategy compared to the conventional sonobuoy deployment methods in the same experimental environment demonstrates superior performance in terms of detection success rate, deployed sonobuoy count, and operational time.

• Journal of the Korea Society for Simulation
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.11-22
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• 2021

Sonobuoy is widely used as a very important sensor in combat management system using P-3 patrol aircraft due to its advantages of rapid searching into wide exploration range. It is necessary to verify the performance of developed sonobuoy system using various maritime test data in order to be successfully applied in combat management system. But it is difficult to acquire various real maritime data because it needs much time and effort. Therefore we have developed in this paper a synthetic signal generator and a simulator that they can verify the performance of sonobuoy system and evaluate its operational effectiveness without conducting maritime test. We have synthesized target signals based on the characteristics of underwater sound sources, and then developed the synthesized signal generator which consider to sound propagation etc. like as underwater environment. And in the simulator development we use a HMI technique to enhance the convenience of operator, and design to verify the performance of sonobuoy system. The developed signal generator and simulator can be used as useful tools to evaluate the operational effectiveness such as optimal deployment of sonobuoy in combat management system using P-3 patrol aircraft.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.73-78
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• 2008

We introduce OBS and sonobuoy systems which are the typical wide-angle reflection/refraction seismic recorders made by KORDI for the investigation of crustal structure and the sediment/basement structure in the coastal area. These recording devices are examined for their usage through the test survey. The normal operation of these devices were proved and good recordings were obatined. The head waves are recognized in the sonobuoy records, which shows the possibility of velocity structure survey by the refraction and/or tomography method.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.302-307
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• 2019

In modern Anti-Submarine Warfare, there are various ways to locate a submarine in a two-dimensional space. For more effective tracking and attack against a submarine the depth of the target is a critical factor. However, it has been difficult to find out the depth of a submarine until now. In this paper a possible solution to the depth estimation of submarines is proposed utilizing DIFAR (Directional Frequency Analysis and Recording) sonobuoy information such as contact bearings at or prior to CPA (Closest Point of Approach) and the target's Doppler signals. The relative depth of the target is determined by applying the Pythagorean theorem to the slant range and horizontal range between the target and the hydrophone of a DIFAR sonobuoy. The slant range is calculated using the Doppler shift and the target's velocity. the horizontal range can be obtained by applying a simple trigonometric function for two consecutive contact bearings and the travel distance of the target. The simulation results show that the algorithm is subject to an elevation angle, which is determined by the relative depth and horizontal distance between the sonobuoy and target, and that a precise measurement of the Doppler shift is crucial.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.461-467
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• 2022

Sonobuoy is a disposable device that collects underwater acoustic information and is designed to transmit signals collected in a particular area to nearby aircraft or ships and sink to the seabed upon completion of its mission. In a conventional sonobouy signal transmission and reception system, collected signals are modulated and transmitted using techniques such as frequency division modulation or Gaussian frequency shift keying, and received and demodulated by an aircraft or a ship. However, this method has the disadvantage of the large amount of information to be transmitted and low security due to relatively simple modulation and demodulation methods. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a method that uses an autoencoder to encode a transmission signal into a low-dimensional latent vector to transmit the latent vector to an aircraft or ship and decode the received latent vector to improve signal security and to reduce the amount of transmission information by approximately a factor of a hundred compared to the conventional method. As a result of confirming the sample spectrogram reconstructed by the proposed method through simulation, it was confirmed that the original signal could be restored from a low-dimensional latent vector.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.140-148
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• 2021

In this paper, we intend to improve the availability by integrating Sonobuoy, the most essential detection system used in anti-submarine operations, with LTE communication of smart devices. Anti-submarine capability to respond to the threat of North Korean submarine forces is becoming increasingly important, and continuous research and development is required. This paper aims to enhance the ability of acoustic tactics by using a military-only LTE communication system installed on a ship, smart devices that can be linked to it, and a multi-static sonobuoy controlled by them. The proposed system can increase the visual effect by not only displaying coordinate values by receiving accurate coordinate information of each sonobuoy to a smart device, but also displaying a marker on a map.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.152-163
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• 2022

In this paper, we present a method to enable an unmanned aerial vehicle to drop the sonobuoy, an essential element of anti-submarine warfare, in an optimal deployment. To this end, an environment simulating the distribution of sound detection performance was configured through the Unity game engine, and the environment directly configured using Unity ML-Agents and the reinforcement learning algorithm written in Python from the outside communicated with each other and learned. In particular, reinforcement learning is introduced to prevent the accumulation of wrong actions and affect learning, and to secure the maximum detection area for the sonobuoy while the vehicle flies to the target point in the shortest time. The optimal placement of the sonobuoy was achieved by applying the Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG) algorithm. As a result of the learning, the agent flew through the sea area and passed only the points to achieve the optimal placement among the 70 target candidates. This means that an autonomous aerial vehicle that deploys a sonobuoy in the shortest time and maximum detection area, which is the requirement for optimal placement, has been implemented.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.192-198
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• 2022

As an effective weapon system for anti-submarine warfare, DIrectional Frequency Analysis and Recording (DIFAR) sonobuoy detects underwater targets via beamforming with three channels composed of an omni-direcitonal and two directional channels. However, ambient noise degrades the detection performance of DIFAR sonobouy in specific direction (0°, 90°, 180°, 270°). Thus, an ambient noise redcution technique is proposed for performance improvement of acoustic target detection of DIFAR sonobuoy. The proposed method is based on OTA (Order Truncate Average), which is widely used in sonar signal processing area, for ambient noise estimation and Wiener filtering, which is widely used in speech signal processing area, for noise reduction. For evaluation, we compare mean square errors of target bearing estmation results of conventional and proposed methods and we confirmed that the proposed method is effective under 0 dB signal-to-noise ratio.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.72-81
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• 2022

Maritime patrol aircraft is an efficient solution for detecting submarines at sea. The aircraft can only detect submarines by sonobuoy, but the number of buoy is limited. In this paper, we present the online sonobuoy deployment method for estimating the location of submarines. We use Gaussian process regression to estimate the submarine existence probability map, and Bayesian optimization to decide the next best position of sonobuoy. Further, we show the performance of the proposed method by simulation.