MB-System Future Development
Author: David Caress, Dale Chayes
Description: open source software for processing bathymetry and backscatter data from multibeam and sidescan sonar
Keywords: seafloor,mapping,multibeam,sonar,bathymetry,sidescan,swath processing,open,source,software

# Plans for Future MB-System Development

Listed below are some notions for the future development of MB-System. We include these here not as a promise of what we will do, but rather to encourage discussion with MB-System users regarding what we might do. Comments and suggestions are welcome: email us at the MB-System Discussion List!

- MB-System architecture changes we would like to achieve:
  - Move installation method from install_makefiles script to a configure script using autoconf or something similar. This will probably result in significant changes to the structure of the source code package.

- Data formats we would like to support:

- Atlas SURF format (Fansweep and Odom sonars) - Atlas released the source code for an API to read and write SURF data under the GNU GPL some years ago. However, the SURF format is supported read-only, which means that SURF format data may be plotted, gridded, and mosaiced, but not reprocessed. We will fuly support the SURF format when we find time. A large amount of German and Australian government mapping data are in the SURF format.
- Caris HDCS format (the result of processing swath bathymetry data with the Caris HIPS software package) - this is another propritary format. A large amount of multibeam data collected by and for NOAA's hydrographic groups are in this format. These data will not be available to the general public until the format is known or the data is translated to an open format.
- Triton-Elics XTF format (produced by the Triton Isis datalogging systems). This is an open, but poorly documented, widely used mapping data collection format. Supporting XTF is unlikely to become a priority for the core MB-System team, but some MB-System users have expressed interest in developing the capability. We shall see...
- Conversion to GSF. We should enable mbcopy to translate a wide variety of data formats into GSF. Some work on this is planned for 2009.

- Capabilities we would like to add to MB-System:

- Improved mblevitus. We need an updated tool to deliver water sound speed models based on more complete and recent databases than the 1982 Levitus database used now.
- Graphical project management tool. With the release of version 5.0, MB-System now has most of the low-level elements in place to enable efficient processing project management. Now we need to make a tool that uses the underlying structure provided by mbprocess and the related programs.
- Improved sidescan processing. We currently use amplitude-vs-grazing angle correction tables derived by averaging the raw data. We would likely do better to model the correction functions as piecewise analytic functions. We also need an interactive tool for developing sidescan correction parameters.
- Extended grid format including sums and weights so that grids can be updated when that is more efficient than recreating from scratch.
- Realtime survey visualization tool. We would like a flexible tool for viewing swath data during surveys with interactively controlled scales and map styles.

Last Updated: $Id: mbsystem_future.html 1813 2009-12-26 23:33:19Z caress $

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