Sonar and Underwater Acoustics brings together all the concepts necessary for designers and users of sonar systems. Unlike other books on this subject, which are often too specialized, this book is accessible to a wider audience. The first part focuses on the acoustic environment, antenna structures, and electric acoustic interface. The latter provides knowledge required to design, as well as the development and implementation of chain processes for an active sonar from the conditioning input to output processing. The reader will find a comprehensive range of all problems encountered in underwater acoustics for a sonar application, from physical phenomena governing the environment and the corresponding constraints, through to the technical definition of transducers and antennas, and the types of signal processing involved. In one section, measures in underwater acoustics are also proposed.

The first meeting on biosonar that I had the opportunity to attend was held in 1978 on the Island of Jersey in the English Channel. That meeting, organized by Professor R.G. Busne1 and Dr. Jim Fish, was my introduction to an exciting and varied group of hard-working and dedicated scientists studying animal echolocation. They are, by nature, a very diverse group. They tend to publish in different journals and rarely interact despite the fact that they all work on echolocation. When they do interact as a group, as they did in Frascati Italy in 1966, in Jersey i~ 1978, and during the meeting reported in this volume, the meetings are intense, interesting, and exciting. This volume is a composition of a series of contributed papers written to foster an interdisciplinary understanding of the echolocation systems of animals. The echolocation pulse production studies in bats and dolphins have recently been concentrated on the ontogeny of infant pulses, other studies, with three-dimensional computer graphics and x-ray computed tomography, have concentrated on finally resolving the old controversy concerning the site of dolphin echolocation click production. Much has been accomplished on the analysis of bat neural structure and function. The intense effort directed toward understanding the structure, connections, and functional properties of parallel auditory pathways and the parallel and hierarchical processing of information by the mustached bat, has lead to dramatic breakthroughs in understanding brain function.

The extraordinary ability of dolphins to echolocate has fascinated scientists and the public since its discovery in the late 1950's. This is the first book to summarize modern research in this area, and presents a broad synthesis of this very interdisciplinary subject. The author is an internationally-recognized expert on dolphin sonar and is thus in a unique position to bring together research on the physiological, mathematical and engineering aspects of the subject. Of interest to auditory researchers, electrical engineers, acoustical physicists, and mammalian physiologists.

Robotics is undergoing a major transformation in scope and dimension. From a largely dominant industrial focus, robotics is rapidly expanding into human en- ronments and vigorously engaged in its new challenges. Interacting with, assisting, serving, and exploring with humans, the emerging robots will increasingly touch people and their lives. Beyond its impact on physical robots, the body of knowledge robotics has p- duced is revealing a much wider range of applications reaching across diverse research areas and scienti?c disciplines, such as: biomechanics, haptics, neu- sciences, virtual simulation, animation, surgery, and sensor networks among others. In return, the challenges of the new emerging areas are proving an abundant source of stimulation and insights for the ?eld of robotics. It is indeed at the intersection of disciplines that the most striking advances happen. The SpringerTracts in AdvancedRobotics(STAR) is devoted to bringing to the research community the latest advances in the robotics ?eld on the basis of their signi?cance and quality. Through a wide and timely dissemination of critical - search developments in robotics, our objective with this series is to promote more exchanges and collaborations among the researchers in the community and c- tribute to further advancements in this rapidly growing ?eld.

Sonar performance modelling (SPM) is concerned with the prediction of quantitative measures of sonar performance, such as probability of detection. It is a multi-disciplinary subject, requiring knowledge and expertise in the disparate fields of underwater acoustics, acoustical oceanography, sonar signal processing and statistical detection theory. No books have been published on this subject, however, since the 3rd edition of Urick’s classic work 25 years ago and so Dr Ainslie’s book will fill a much-needed gap in the market. Currently, up-to-date information can only be found, in different forms and often with conflicting information, in various journals, conference and textbook publications. Dr Michael Ainslie is eminently qualified to write this unique book. He has worked on sonar performance modeling problems since 1983. He has written many peer reviewed research articles and conference papers related to sonar performance modeling, making contributions in the fields of sound propagation and detection theory.

At the dawn of the new millennium, robotics is undergoing a major transfor- tion in scope and dimension. From a largely dominant industrial focus, robotics is rapidly expanding into the challenges of unstructured environments. Inter- ting with, assisting, serving, and exploring with humans, the emerging robots will increasingly touch people and their lives. The goal of this new series of Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics is to bring,inatimelyfashion,thelatestadvancesanddevelopmentsinroboticsonthe basisoftheirsigni?canceandquality.Itisourhopethatthegreaterdissemination of research developments will stimulate more exchanges and collaborations among the research community and contribute to further advancement of this rapidly growing ?eld. As one of robotics pioneering symposia, ISRR, the "International Sym- sium on Robotics Research," has established over the past two decades some of the ?eld’s most fundamental and lasting contributions.With the launching of STAR, this and other thematic symposia devoted to excellence in robotics ?nd an important platform for closer links and extended reach within the research community. The Tenth edition of "Robotics Research" edited by Raymond Jarvis and AlexZelinskyoffersinits11-partvolumeacollectionofabroadrangeoftopics in robotics. The content of these contributions provides a wide coverage of the current state of robotics research: the advances and challenges in its theoretical foundation and technology basis, and the developments in its traditional and new areas of applications.

"Digital Sonar Design in Underwater Acoustics Principles and Applications" provides comprehensive and up-to-date coverage of research on sonar design, including the basic theory and techniques of digital signal processing, basic concept of information theory, ocean acoustics, underwater acoustic signal propagation theory, and underwater signal processing theory. This book discusses the general design procedure and approaches to implementation, the design method, system simulation theory and techniques, sonar tests in the laboratory, lake and sea, and practical validation criteria and methods for digital sonar design. It is intended for researchers in the fields of underwater signal processing and sonar design, and also for navy officers and ocean explorers. Qihu Li is a professor at the Institute of Acoustics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.