The Echoscope Forward Looking Obstacle Avoidance Sonar (FL) is a revolutionary advance on existing forward looking obstacle avoidance sonars and is intended for use in AUV, ROV and surface vessel applications. It provides automated obstacle sensing as well as a number of modes which allow a greater knowledge of the subsea environment.

Using unique 3D acoustics Echoscope-FL is able to detect and image objects both fixed and moving at ranges of up to 300m in front of the sonar in zero visibility water conditions, unlike optical based sensors. Unlike other systems, Echoscope-FL uses a receive array of 128 x 128 beams (16384) to provide instantaneous 3D data created from a single ping rather than the 3D imagery obtained by stacking a sequence of images from a conventional 2D sonar. This results in highly accurate positioning.

Cutting edge electronics and signal processing enable multiple data products to be created in real-time. In addition to the standard ‘target strength’ image, high resolution sector scans and multiple-plane sector scan images can also be produced instantaneously. Using a broader transmitted beam Echoscope FL can be used to image a much larger volume, which is particularly useful at short to medium ranges where the coverage obtained by other systems is often quite small.

Echoscope sonars are in use around the world in a variety of applications including surface vessel forward looking sonars, ROV obstacle avoidance, construction scene visualisation and metrication, harbour wall inspection, diver detection and forward looking bathymetry systems.