Klein Marine Systems is now offering the first nadir imaging sonar for both the commercial and military unmanned vehicle markets. The μMA-X is a highly scalable, modular system that integrates easily to most AUV/ROV vehicles.  The system utilizes Klein’s next-generation µEngine, which is a robust, compact, low-power architecture that uses Klein BLUE technology to provide superior imaging performance.

Traditional side scan sonar systems suffer from a nadir gap in the center of the image directly under the path of the vehicle.  The µMA-X system fills that gap and, when paired with conventional side scan, eliminates the need for overlapping survey lines to achieve 100 percent coverage. For AUVs, this translates into extended mission durations or shorter times to cover the same area. 

The key discriminator of the µMA-X is the ability to produce high-quality imagery of the nadir area that is comparable to traditional side scan imagery.  This allows for the data acquired by the system to be fed directly into existing automatic target recognition (ATR) software allowing for automated detection and recognition of targets of interest.

Learn more at: http://kleinmarinesystems.com/products/side-scan-sonar/micro_ma-x/.