Probability of Target Presence for Multistatic Sonar Ping Sequencing

In this communication, the problem of determining effective pinging strategies in multistatic sonar systems with multiple transmitters is addressed. New algorithms are presented to determine effective pinging strategies for generalized search scenarios. An important part of this work is the development of metrics to be used in the optimization procedures. For maintaining search coverage, a ldquoprobability of target presencerdquo metric formulation is used. This formulation utilizes sonar performance prediction and a Bayesian update to incorporate negative information (i.e., searching an area but finding no targets) into the optimization procedure. The possibility of targets moving into previously searched areas is accounted for by using a Fokker-Planck (FP) drift/diffusion formulation. Monte Carlo simulations are used to show the accuracy and efficiency of this formulation. This formulation is shown to be computationally efficient compared to Monte Carlo simulations. It is also demonstrated that by choosing the ping sequence intelligently, the field performance can be improved compared to random or sequential ping sequencing.