I have been looking into the ping360 to use to navigate but then saw that smearing happens if you move. if this was limited to 90 degrees or maybe even 60 just to see in front, could the 360 be used for navigation while moving or would I always have to stop survey move as far as I had previously scanned and repeat.
Hi @nfored,
I’m not really sure what you’re asking about here, so please clarify if my response doesn’t answer your question.
When using the Ping360 for navigation it’s most common to do 360° scanning, in which case Ping Viewer’s heading integration can get the compass direction from the vehicle telemetry, and use that to auto-rotate the plot so previously scanned directions are maintained (note: this does not consider vehicle translations). You can see that in action here.
Regardless of the sector angle, moving the vehicle while scanning will cause some physical overlap with existing pings or gaps where pings would have occurred if the sonar had been stationary, and there is currently no attempt to compensate for that in terms of how the scanning is done.
When not making use of heading integration, turning the vehicle with the scan direction results in scans that correspond to physically larger angles between ping transducer angles, whereas turning against the scan direction results in pings being squished together into a smaller angular range. Artefacts from these effects (and those from vehicle translations) are exacerbated by fast vehicle movements, long scan ranges, and high angular resolutions, whereas moving the vehicle slowly and scanning a short range results in scans that more closely match what the sonar is intending to scan.
Thank you I think I understand so as long as I am not moving at a crazy speed I should be able to have fair confidence that I will “see” an object in the sonar path but outside the ringing zone, it might be slightly squished or elongated or possibly slight overlap, but it wont pop up suddenly 1 or two meters outside the ringing zone.
My goal is to be able to move in rivers likely slowly as I wont have visual sight, and avoid hitting something or mistakenly by chance navigate through a few trees and get my tether stuck. I would assume just like FPV the slower the easier to see and avoid.
Thank you for this… @EliotBR