The most familiar context is Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS) surveys, where the sensor is mounted on a tripod, or suspended from a crane.
With SEP Hydrographic’s Scanning Sonar, the subsea sensor is deployed in the same fashion, only underwater. Depending upon the location, the system can be deployed from the vessel via her davit or from a land based crane.
The data is typically acquired in a local co-ordinate system with each scan aligned with the senor’s own frame of reference. During the processing phase, data are assigned a real-world location using a combination of traditional land surveying and LiDAR-style registration techniques.