Multibeamechosounders, also known as Swathe or Swath echosounders, originated in the late 1950s. They were developed in the 1970s by the US Navy, in conjunction with General Instruments, to map large swaths of the ocean floor to assist the underwater navigation of its submarine force. Companies such as General Instruments (now SeaBeam Instruments and part of L3/Klein) in the United States, Krupp Atlas (now Atlas Hydrographic), Elac (in Germany) and Simrad (now Kongsberg Maritime) in Norway developed systems that could be mounted to the hull of small boats. Such developments started in the 1970s and, with rapidly improving technology, through the 1980s and 1990s. RESON, headquartered in Slangerup, Denmark, developed the "SeaBat" range of portable multibeam echosounders. The systems are widely used for shallow water hydrographic surveying to make harbor charts. In the 1990s, companies started using this technology for offshore oil and gas exploration. Black Gold Energy incorporates multibeam data as part of their SeaSeepdatasets.
