Cognitive MIMO sonar based robust target detection for harbor and maritime surveillance applications

Robust detection of various hostile threats is vital to protect Navy ships and other facilities within harbor and maritime environments. Traditional single-input single-output (SISO) sonar transmits single acoustic waveform by single projector, which has a few disadvantages including low target detection probability, low resolution, vulnerability of interception by the enemy, sensitivity to jamming, etc. Multi-input multi-output (MIMO), typically applied to communications and radar solutions, is an emerging technology that can be applied to sonar to overcome many of the SISO sonar disadvantages. In this paper, cognitive monostatic/bistatic/multistatic MIMO sonar approaches are proposed. MIMO sonar transmits different orthogonal acoustic waveforms from multiple projectors with different spatial distributions. Through space-time-waveform diversity, MIMO sonar is able to apply coherent processing techniques over the received signals, and acquires more diversity gains. The cognition concept proposed in the literature for radar and wireless communication is applied to MIMO sonar to improve its robustness and adaptability. The advantages of proposed cognitive MIMO sonar will be demonstrated by Monte Carlo computer simulations and compared to the SISO techniques.