Software‐Defined Sonar for Unmanned Underwater System

ABSTRACT The advancement of intelligent unmanned underwater systems demands enhanced multifunctionality, flexibility, and an open architecture for sonar equipment. To address the demands of underwater detection, this paper proposes a software‐defined sonar (SDS) architecture featuring a terminal‐plus‐centre design tailored for unmanned underwater systems. This proposal draws on the foundational concepts of SDS and the architecture of software‐defined radar. The performance parameters of integrated SDS have been preliminarily designed and analysed for underwater acoustic imaging, depth measurement, and velocity measurement. The feasibility of the proposed SDS architecture is validated through an instance analysis that combines centralised hardware with component‐based software. In the future, SDS has the potential to substantially elevate the intelligence level of unmanned underwater systems.