SeeByte has successfully demonstrated their Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) software using a L-3 Klein Associates sonar payload (L-3 Klein UUV 3500, dual frequency 455/900 kHz) on an Iver-3 vehicle.

This process involved the ATR software being tuned to the Klein sonar in order for the software to be able to identify contacts of interest in the sonar data. The tuning of the sonar was done using settings commonly applied in mine countermeasures (MCM) missions. Once the mission was completed the data was imported into SeeTrack Military where the Mission Review Tool was used to mark and measure contacts. The geo-referencing engine was used to visualize all
relevant data from that same location.

Frank Cobis, VP and General Manager at L-3 Klein commented: “We are looking forward to offering this advanced capability to our customers. Using the Klein UUV-3500 sonar with the ATR module will allow our customers to effectively collect larger quantities of data and automatically process and identify contacts. This is a huge step forward for the MCM community using our side-scan sonar.”

Scott Reed, Head of Engineering at SeeByte, stated: “At SeeByte our ongoing aim is to provide our MCM customers with clear results to help them make effective decisions. We do this by offering an ATR capability that provides consistent results and is trusted by the operator.

“Recently we have been investing considerable efforts to make our ATR software run onboard autonomous underwater vehicles and also developing common data models to ensure integration with different sensors, such as the L-3 Klein UUV 3500 sonar.”

SeeByte’s ATR software is available on SeeTrack Military, used by Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) and Clearance Divers to achieve success in managing their off-board assets during dangerous and demanding missions. SeeTrack Military is now being used by 20 navies around the world. SeeByte’s ATR module has been developed to automatically highlight potential targets captured within the sensor data and present these to the operator. The ATR software can be tuned to recognise new targets, effectively adapting to the challenges faced in MCM.