Active sonar signal simulation

The application of expert system principles as part of the signal processing chain for target detection in an active sonar system is being researched at the University of Birmingham. In order to establish the rules by which the expert system is to operate it is necessary to evaluate the characteristics of the sonar environment and the received signals. A convenient method of generating these is by using a software simulator. This paper reports on the progress made in the development of such a real-time simulator in which the problems to be tackled by the expert system are those of tracking the returns from a moving target against a background of reverberation and of producing a constant false alarm rate