A Small-Sized Low-Cost and High-Resolution Two-Dimensional Side-Scan Sonar Imaging Method Using Sparse Transmit-Receive Arrays

ZHAO Wanchun; LIU Xionghou; YANG Yixin

doi:10.11993/j.issn.2096-3920.2026-0060

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ZHAO Wanchun, LIU Xionghou, YANG Yixin. A Small-Sized Low-Cost and High-Resolution Two-Dimensional Side-Scan Sonar Imaging Method Using Sparse Transmit-Receive Arrays[J]. Journal of Unmanned Undersea Systems. doi: 10.11993/j.issn.2096-3920.2026-0060

Citation:

ZHAO Wanchun, LIU Xionghou, YANG Yixin. A Small-Sized Low-Cost and High-Resolution Two-Dimensional Side-Scan Sonar Imaging Method Using Sparse Transmit-Receive Arrays[J]. Journal of Unmanned Undersea Systems. doi: 10.11993/j.issn.2096-3920.2026-0060

Citation:

ZHAO Wanchun, LIU Xionghou, YANG Yixin. A Small-Sized Low-Cost and High-Resolution Two-Dimensional Side-Scan Sonar Imaging Method Using Sparse Transmit-Receive Arrays[J]. Journal of Unmanned Undersea Systems. doi: 10.11993/j.issn.2096-3920.2026-0060

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A Small-Sized Low-Cost and High-Resolution Two-Dimensional Side-Scan Sonar Imaging Method Using Sparse Transmit-Receive Arrays

doi: 10.11993/j.issn.2096-3920.2026-0060

ZHAO Wanchun^{1, 2, 3},
LIU Xionghou^{1, 2, 3},
YANG Yixin⁴

1.
School of Marine Science and Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi′an 710072, China
2.
Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Underwater Information Technology, Xi′an 710072, China
3.
School of Electronic and Optical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094

Received Date: 2026-03-26
Accepted Date: 2026-05-26
Rev Recd Date: 2026-05-20

Available Online: 2026-06-04

Abstract

Abstract

To overcome the problems of excessively large array aperture and high element cost when improving angular resolution in existing two-dimensional side-scan sonar imaging methods, this paper proposes a small-size, low-cost, high-resolution two-dimensional side-scan sonar imaging method. The proposed method uses a uniformly spaced linear array with large inter-element spacing as a sparse transmitting array and multiple uniformly spaced linear arrays with full sampling as subarrays to form a sparse receiving array. By utilizing the product theorem, a horizontally fully-sampled large-aperture virtual array is formed. The number of elements in this virtual array equals the product of the number of transmitting elements, the number of receiving subarrays, and the number of elements per subarray, while the aperture is the sum of the transmitting array aperture and the receiving array aperture. Thus, a large-aperture equivalent array is achieved with smaller size and fewer elements. Based on the designed array configuration, the proposed method adopts the same waveform and normal-direction single-beam side-scan imaging mode as traditional two-dimensional side-scan sonar imaging methods. Numerical simulations demonstrate that compared with the traditional method (240 transmitting elements / 240 receiving elements, center frequency of 450 kHz), the proposed method reduces the array size from 0.40 m to 0.33 m, decreases the total number of elements from 480 to 40, narrows the horizontal -3 dB beamwidth from 0.41° to 0.25°, and improves the angular resolution by approximately 40%. The proposed method achieves higher imaging resolution with smaller array size and fewer elements.
- side-scan sonar,
- sparse transmit-receive array,
- virtual aperture synthesis,
- high-resolution imaging,
- small-sized sonar

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References(19)

References

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