An expendable device that enables aircraft to detect underwater objects, such as submarines, acoustically. Acoustics is the preferred energy form for use in salt water, because it tends to be the least attenuated by the medium.A sonobuoy consists of an electronic radio link and antenna connected to a miniature sonar system. It contains the means for its launch from the aircraft, its entry into the water, separation of a floating antenna from the underwater transducer and sonar, and activation of a seawater battery upon entry, as well as a scuttling means for final sinking upon completion of its intended useful life. The short life requires that each component be highly reliable and effective at low cost. The package must also be small and lightweight, since large numbers of packages are to be carried on an aircraft. See also Sonar.The simplest sonobuoy is a passive sonar that senses sound with its hydrophone, amplifies and converts it to a radio signal, and transmits the signal from i

This application of SRI's procedural reasoning technology emphasizes the control of multiple, loosely-coupled, intelligent processes to detect and localize submarines. Depending upon the extent of the area of uncertainty surrounding a detected submarine's location, hydrophon deployment patters are intelligently selected and applied until the uncertainty is resolved. DomainAircraft like the P-3C Orion anti-submarine patrol aircraft detect and localize submarines by deploying specific patterns of sonobuoys - sensitive acoustic transducers - to listen for telltale sounds emitted by the submarines. By fusing the information from multiple sonobuoys, it is possible to make accurate determinations of the location of a submarine. This demonstration simulates the detection and localization of a submarine by a P-3C aircraft. It accomplishes this by selecting sonobuoy patterns for deployment based on its current information about the sub's position and the location of the aircraft, deployin