ONBOARD ACTIVE-PULSE UNDERWATER VISION SYSTEM THROUGH THE AIR-WATER BOUNDARY

The objective of this work is to create a system for detecting underwater objects intended for installationon surface platforms (aircraft or remotely piloted aircraft). Systems of this type can be used to solvea wide range of problems in various areas of the national economy: searching for rare fish and marinemammals, determining their migration routes, diagnostics and laying underwater pipelines and fiber opticcable networks, monitoring seawater pollution, searching for sunken ships and archaeological treasures,and carrying out rescue operations. To solve this problem, the process of laser radiation propagation toan object across the air-water interface was described, a rough sea surface was modeled, and a number ofmathematical assumptions and approximations were proposed. In the practical part, a structural diagramof a laser optical-television active-pulse underwater vision system was developed, including receiving andtransmitting channels, as well as a control device consisting of an image processing unit and a control controller. The receiving channel includes an electron-optical converter of the III+ generation, highlysensitive in the spectral range of sea water transparency. The main element of the transmitting channel isa highly efficient pulse laser emitting in the spectral range of sea water transparency. The assembled devicehas undergone field tests, as a result of which it became clear that detection and recognition of underwatertargets from an aircraft through the air-water interface using the generated image is possible,the maximum detection range and recognition of underwater targets of the active-pulse underwater visionsystem from an aircraft through the air-water interface is mainly determined by: attenuation of opticalradiation in sea water and the power of the illuminating laser pulse radiation, At the same time, a distinctivefeature of the active-pulse underwater vision system is that the increase in the detection and recognitionrange is almost directly proportional to a certain level of laser radiation power, and a further increasein power leads to an insignificant increase in range