California-based Blue Robotics announced its newest product, the
Ping360 Scanning Sonar, which offers small remotely operated
underwater vehicle (ROVs) the ability to navigate in low
visibility water conditions.
The Ping360 is a mechanical scanning sonar - it uses a small
acoustic transducer mounted on a motor that rotates it in
one-degree increments.
As it rotates, it transmits and receives acoustic pulses to build
a 360-degree image of the surroundings. This is similar to laser
scanners and LIDARs used for ground robotics and autonomous cars
but using sound waves instead of light.
When mounted on a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV), the
Ping360 provides the pilot with a top-down image of the
surroundings, showing objects nearby like ropes, walls, dock
pilings, rocks, shipwrecks, boats, fish, and any other structures
or objects that reflect sound waves.
The scanning sonar can see objects up to 50 meters away and is
rated to a maximum water depth of 300 meters.
The Ping360 operates with Blue Robotics Ping Viewer, an open
source sonar visualization application that can connect to the
sonar directly or through an ROV's tether. It works seamlessly
with the BlueROV2 underwater vehicle to provide new mission
capabilities.
Blue Robotics Intros Ping360 Scanning Sonar
Sep 20, 2019