This paper presents an approach to the real-time
adaptive control of multiple high-frequency sonar for Unmanned Underwater
Vehicles (UUVs). The central acoustic sensor controller manages the sensors
during survey missions, facilitating the operation of co-located,
similar-frequency sonar. Multibeam data is processed in real-time to provide a
priori bathymetry data to auxiliary acoustic sensors. The automated system is
based on the interleaving of the sonar transmission-reception cycles to avoid
the saturation of acoustic harmonics, permitting the integration of multiple
acoustic sensors operating in parallel. By dynamically adapting the ping rates
of the payload sensors, the system optimises the execution of the seabed
mapping survey and improves the quality of the resulting data, thereby
significantly increasing survey productivity.