Environmental effects on seabed object bistatic scattering classification.

One of the factors that significantly affects bistatic scattering from seabed targets is bottom type. This factor has the potential to impact classification, as models that do not take bottom composition into account could improperly characterize target type, geometry, or material. This paper looks at the impact of bottom composition and self-burial on scattering from spherical and cylindrical targets in a 6.5 m deep environment with a mud and sand bottom. Sphere and cylinder scattering data from an autonomous underwater vehicle-based bistatic scattering experiment are compared to scattering simulation models with a range of bottom compositions and target burial increments. Three different sets of sediment parameters were tested. Correlation between the real and simulated data are then used to assess the similarity of each simulated scattering data set to the experiment data. Robustness to bottom composition in classification was then tested by training a model using simulated data and classifying experiment target data using a machine learning method for each environment type. Combined-environment classification models, composed of different ranges of mud depths and target burial increments, were shown to be effective at classifying the experiment data.