Communication In Underwater Environment Research Articles

Secrecy performance analysis of a IRS-assisted underwater optical wireless communication system

In response to the dearth of radio frequency (RF) equivalents, there has been a recent surge in interest in optical wireless communication in underwater environments. To ensure a strong line-of-sight (LOS) connection, the intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) is installed to create a virtual LOS. Then, the first part of this study looks into the security of underwater optical wireless communication (UOWC) in relation to a number of real-world phenomena, including oceanic propagation loss, oceanic turbulence, and IRS-induced geometric loss. Then, a wiretap channel with three authorized users - a reputable broadcaster named Alice (the submarine), a law-abiding user named Bob, and an eavesdropper named Eve - is examined over turbulent channels that exhibit the Log-normal distribution. Furthermore, our study derives the closed-form formulas for the secrecy performance measures, secrecy outage probability, and secrecy throughput. Finally, the numerical results show how the impact of oceanic turbulence-induced fading and distance between Bob’s and Eve’s positions on the secrecy system performance.

Modeling and Simulation of SWARA Path Loss Model for Underwater Acoustic Communication in Multipath Environment

Effective communication in underwater environments is essential for numerous applications, including marine research, oil and gas exploration, and underwater surveillance. However, signal loss during propagation is a significant challenge for underwater communication systems. Accurate mathematical models are necessary to develop and optimize communication systems for underwater environments. This research proposes a mathematical model, SWARA, that incorporates crucial parameters such as transmitter and receiver responses, channel conditions, node placements, and signal frequency to accurately model short-range losses in underwater medium. We conducted tank trials at the UWAA Lab, CARE, IIT Delhi to validate our simulation results, using a chirp signal with a frequency ranging from 25–35 kHz. Our simulation results show that the SWARA model effectively predicts short-range propagation losses in underwater media. Compared to experimental losses, the maximum and minimum simulated losses deviated by only − 0.18–0.10 W/Hz and − 0.36–0.19 W/Hz, respectively, indicating the accuracy of the model. Our tank trials further revealed the significant impact of projector and hydrophone placements on incurred losses, highlighting the importance of careful placement in the design of underwater communication systems. In conclusion, this research proposes the SWARA model for studying short-range losses in underwater tank, which effectively incorporates crucial parameters for accurate modeling. The model has practical applications in the design and optimization of underwater communication systems for short-range applications. This research provides important insights for the development of effective underwater communication systems.

UQRCom

While communication in the air has been a norm with the pervasiveness of WiFi and LTE infrastructure, underwater communication still faces a lot of challenges. Even nowadays, the main communication method for divers in underwater environment is hand gesture. There are multiple issues associated with gesture-based communication including limited amount of information and ambiguity. On the other hand, traditional RF-based wireless communication technologies which have achieved great success in the air can hardly work in underwater environment due to the extremely severe attenuation. In this paper, we propose UQRCom, an underwater wireless communication system designed for divers. We design a UQR code which stems from QR code and address the unique challenges in underwater environment such as color cast, contrast reduction and light interfere. With both real-world experiments and simulation, we show that the proposed system can achieve robust real-time communication in underwater environment. For UQR codes with a size of 19.8 cm x 19.8 cm, the communication distance can be 11.2 m and the achieved data rate (6.9 kbps ~ 13.6 kbps) is high enough for voice communication between divers.

Challenges and vision of wireless optical and acoustic communication in underwater environment

SummaryUnderwater Wireless Communication is a rapidly growing technology in the research domain. The researchers have been working towards the developments in underwater communication by investigating climatic changes, prediction of natural disasters, marine environment, monitoring aquatic life, oceanographic transmission, and data collection. The main objective of underwater communication is to achieve lossless, high transmission with the least power consumption. The Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are set up with remote instruments and sensors to enable the natural exploration of the resources in the undersea environment. This research article is based on the study of various modes of communication, architectures, and protocol layers involved in underwater communication. Furthermore, an underwater hybrid connection is established by opto‐acoustic signals, and the overview of various performance characteristics, channel behaviors, and issues in the underwater scenario are investigated.

Sensitivity-based data fusion for optical localization of a mobile robot

Acoustic-based techniques are the standard for localization and communication in underwater environments, but due to the challenges associated with this medium, it is becoming increasingly popular to find alternatives such as using optics. In our prior work we developed an LED-based Simultaneous Localization and Communication (SLAC) approach that used the bearing angles, needed for establishing optical line-of-sight for LED-based communication between two beacon nodes and a mobile robot, to triangulate and thereby localize the position of the robot. Our focus in this paper is on how to optimally fuse measurement data for optical localization in a network with multiple pairs of beacon nodes to obtain the target location. We propose the use of a sensitivity metric, designed to characterize the level of uncertainty in the position estimate with respect to the bearing angle error, to dynamically select a desired pair of beacon nodes. The proposed solution is evaluated with extensive simulation and experimentation, in a setting of three beacons nodes and one mobile node. Comparison with multiple alternative approaches demonstrates the efficacy of the proposed approach.

Establishing and Maintaining a Reliable Optical Wireless Communication in Underwater Environment

This paper proposes the trajectory tracking problem between an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) and a mobile surface ship, both equipped with optical communication transceivers. The challenging issue is to maintain stable connectivity between the two autonomous vehicles within an optical communication range. We define a directed optical line-of-sight (LoS) link between the two vehicle systems. The transmitter is mounted on the AUV, while the surface ship is equipped with an optical receiver. However, this optical communication channel needs to preserve a stable transmitter-receiver position to reinforce service quality, which typically includes a bit rate and bit error rates. A cone-shaped beam region of the optical receiver is approximated based on the channel model; then, a minimum bit rate is ensured if the AUV transmitter remains inside of this region. Additionally, we design two control algorithms for the transmitter to drive the AUV to the angle of the maximum achievable data rate and maintain it in the cone-shaped beam region and under an uncertain oceanic environment. Lyapunov function-based analysis that ensures asymptotic stability of the resulting closed-loop tracking error is used to design the proposed Non-linear Proportional and Derivative (NLPD) controller. Numerical simulations are performed using MATLAB/Simulink to show the controllers’ ability to achieve favorable tracking in the presence of the solar background noise within competitive times. Finally, results demonstrate the proposed NLPD controller improves the tracking error performance more than 70% under nominal conditions and 35% with model uncertainties and disturbances compared to the original Proportional and Derivative (PD) strategy.

Development of Underwater Acoustic Channel Model for Wireless Sensor Network in Tank

The physical quantity of interest can be detected using wireless sensor network. The concept of wireless sensor network used to explore difficult areas to access is extended to underwater applications. Efforts are made to focus on design and development of reliable, feasible and robust system for communication in underwater environment. The scenario of communication is completely different for terrestrial and underwater environment. Underwater wireless communication is accomplished by transmission of acoustic signal. Requirement exists to develop a model governing basic equations for acoustic frequency range for underwater acoustic communication. With excess quantity of sodium chloride in a underwater tank, the physical properties of the channel changes which alternately effects the communication. Using soft computing technique, the attenuation model is simulated which is a basic physical property taking change during underwater acoustic communication. The topology of sensor network in water is another challenging task because behaviors of acoustic sensor in underwater are completely different than terrestrial sensors. Thus the efforts are made to devise a model of acoustic frequency environment in water using basic relationships of various physical phenomena. The Channel propagation model is devised that helps to understand percentage area coverage for the received signal strength of the transmitted acoustic signal. Thus the underwater acoustic signal channel propagation model is presented which helps to focus on communication scenario in water and proceed for application.

An innovative decentralized strategy for I-AUVs cooperative manipulation tasks

In the last years, a challenging field of autonomous robotics is represented by cooperative mobile manipulation carried out in different environments (aerial, terrestrial and underwater environment). As regards cooperative manipulation of Intervention-Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (I-AUVs), this application is characterized by a more complex environment of work, compared to the terrestrial or aerial ones, both due to different technological problems, e.g. localization and communication in underwater environment. However, the use of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) and I-AUV will necessarily grow up in the future exploration of the sea. Particularly, cooperative I-AUVs represent the natural evolution of single centralized I-AUV because they may be used in various underwater assembly tasks, such as complex underwater structure construction and maintenance (e.g. underwater pipeline and cable transportation can be carried out by multiple cooperative I-AUVs). Furthermore, underwater search and rescue tasks could be more efficient and effective if multiple I-AUVs were used.In this paper, the authors propose an innovative decentralized approach for cooperative mobile manipulation of I-AUVs. This decentralized strategy is based on a different use of potential field method; in particular, a multi-layer control structure is developed to in parallel manage the coordination of the swarm, the guidance and navigation of the I-AUVs and the manipulation task. The main advantage of the potential field method is that less information is necessary: navigation and control problems are reduced to the evaluation of the distance vector among the vehicles, object and obstacles. Moreover, because of the technological problems caused by the underwater environment, the reduction of the transmitted data is one of the keypoints of this architecture. In MATLAB®-Simulink®, the authors have simulated a transportation task of a partially known object along a reference trajectory in an unknown environment, where some obstacles are placed. The task is performed by an I-AUV swarm composed of four vehicles, each one provided of a 7 Degrees Of Freedom (DOFs) robotic arm.

State Estimation and Compression Method for the Navigation of Multiple Autonomous Underwater Vehicles With Limited Communication Traffic

This study proposes a state estimation and compression method for navigating multiple autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) toward wide area surveys near seafloors. In the proposed method, a moving AUV navigates by referencing a stationary landmark AUV on the seafloor. By alternating the landmark role, all AUVs can cover a wide area while maintaining low positioning errors. The moving AUV estimates the states (positions and headings) of both moving and landmark AUVs by a stochastic approach called a particle filter. When AUVs exchange their landmark roles, they must share their estimated states. However, state sharing is precluded by the low data rate of acoustical communications in underwater environments. To overcome the problem, this paper proposes a state compression method in which AUVs approximate their states by “particle clustering” based on a clustering method (k-means) and a model evaluation method (Akaike information criterion). The compression method enables AUVs to share their states by communicating small amounts of data. The proposed method was evaluated in simulations of two AUVs navigating over a 300 × 300-m <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> seafloor area. Throughout the simulation, the proposed method maintained stable positioning and successful state sharing with small communication data size.

수중 무선센서네트워크에서 수중채널의 특성을 활용한 DTN 라우팅 프로토콜

최근 해양 플랜트, 해저 탐사, 수중 모니터링 시스템 등에 대한 관심이 급증하고 있으며, 그에 대한 연구도 활발히 진행 중이다. 하지만, 수중 무선 통신은 물속이라는 특수한 환경적 요소로 인해 지상에 비해 매우 열악한 통신 환경을 가진다. 이로 인해 기존에 사용하던 지상 통신의 방법을 수중에 그대로 적용하는 것은 성능적인 면에서 적합하지 않다. 이에 본 논문은 수중 무선 센서네트워크에서 통신 신뢰성을 향상시키기 위하여 수중 환경의 특성을 직접적으로 고려한 라우팅 알고리즘을 제시한다. 특히, 수중 무선 통신을 어렵게 만드는 두 가지 문제, 즉, 다중경로 문제와 신호의 감쇠현상을 해결함으로써 수중에서 보다 나은 신뢰성을 보장하고자 한다. 또한, 실험을 통하여 제시하는 알고리즘이 보다 나은 성능을 보임을 증명하였다. Recently, the ocean field researches such as offshore plant, ocean survey and underwater monitoring systems are garnering the attention from both academy and industry. However, the communication in underwater environment is very difficult because of the unique irregular features in water. This is the reason that the application of terrestrial protocols to the water environment is not proper. This paper proposes a routing algorithm that can enhance communication reliability by utilizing channel properties in underwater environment. We address two problems that lead to the poor communication performance, signal attenuation and multi-path problem in water. Overcoming these problems, the proposed algorithm ensures high packet delivery ratio and low transmission delay. Also, this paper evaluates the performance through simulation.

Magnetic Induction for Underwater Wireless Communication Networks

Although acoustic waves are the most versatile and widely used physical layer technology for underwater wireless communication networks (UWCNs), they are adversely affected by ambient noise, multipath propagation, and fading. The large propagation delays, low bandwidth, and high bit error rates of the underwater acoustic channel hinder communication as well. These operational limits call for complementary technologies or communication alternatives when the acoustic channel is severely degraded. Magnetic induction (MI) is a promising technique for UWCNs that is not affected by large propagation delays, multipath propagation, and fading. In this paper, the MI communication channel has been modeled. Its propagation characteristics have been compared to the electromagnetic and acoustic communication systems through theoretical analysis and numerical evaluations. The results prove the feasibility of MI communication in underwater environments. The MI waveguide technique is developed to reduce path loss. The communication range between source and destination is considerably extended to hundreds of meters in fresh water due to its superior bit error rate performance.

Vision-based object detection and tracking for autonomous navigation of underwater robots

Underwater robots have been an emerging research area being at the intersection of the field of robotics and oceanic engineering. Their applications include environmental monitoring, oceanographic mapping, and infrastructure inspections in deep sea. In performing these tasks, the ability of autonomous navigation is the key to a success, especially with the limited communications in underwater environments. Considering the highly dynamic and three-dimensional environments, the autonomous navigation technologies including path planning and tracking have been one of the interesting but challenging tasks in the field of study. Cameras have not been at the center of attention as an underwater sensor due to the limited detection ranges and the poor visibility. Use of visual data from cameras, however, is still an attractive method for underwater sensing and it is especially effective in the close range detections. In this paper, the vision-based object detection and tracking techniques for underwater robots have been studied in depth. In order to overcome the limitations of cameras and to make use of the full advantages of image data, a number of approaches have been tested. The topics include color restoration algorithm for the degraded underwater images, detection and tracking methods for underwater target objects. The feasibilities of the proposed algorithms have been demonstrated in the experiments with an underwater robot platform and the results have been analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively.

동적 타임 슬롯 할당에 기반한 수중 모바일 Ad-hoc 네트워크에서의 매체접근제어 프로토콜

수중 모바일 ad-hoc 네트워크는 수중환경 감시, 재난방지, 해양자원 탐사, 해양생명체 탐구, 그리고 침몰선박 탐색과 같은 수중환경의 다양한 분야에서 유용하다. 수중 환경에서 다중 데이터 통신을 하기 위해서는 효율적인 Medium Access Control (MAC) 프로토콜의 설계가 필요하다. Aloha 프로토콜은 기본적이고 간단한 프로토콜의 하나지만, 충돌이 자주 발생하는 단점이 있다. 만약 RF 통신에서 충돌이 발생한다면, 재전송을 하여 이 문제를 해결할 수 있지만, 저주파를 사용하는 수중에서는 전송 속도가 느리기 때문에 재전송에 많은 어려움이 따른다. 따라서 충돌을 피하기 위해 MAC 프로토콜 기반의 Time Division Multiple Access(TDMA)가 사용되고 있지만, 기존 TDMA는 보낼 데이터가 없을 경우, 타임 슬롯을 쓰지 않는 문제점이 있다. 따라서, 본 논문에서는 보낼 데이터가 없을 경우, 짧은 "I Have No Data"(IHND)를 보냄으로써 타임 슬롯을 단축시키는 동적 TDMA 프로토콜 방식을 제안한다. 또한, 본 논문에서는 데이터 처리량과 채널 효율에 관련된 수학적 분석 모델을 제시하고 기존 TDMA 프로토콜과 비교함으로써 성능의 우수성을 검증한다. Underwater wireless network can be useful in various fields such as underwater environment observation, catastrophe prevention, ocean resources exploration, ocean organism research, and vessel sinking exploration. We need to develop an efficient design for Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol to improve multiple data communication in underwater environment. Aloha protocol is one of the basic and simple protocols, but it has disadvantage such as collision occurs oftenly in communication. If there is collision occured in RF communication, problem can be solved by re-sending the data, but using low frequency in underwater, the re-transmission has difficulties due to slow bit-rate. So, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) based MAC protocol is going to be used to avoid collisions, but if there is no data to send in existing TDMA, time slot should not be used. Therefore, this paper proposes dynamic TDMA protocol mechanism with reducing the time slots by sending short "I Have No Data" (IHND) message, if there is no data to transmit. Also, this paper presents mathematic analysis model in relation to data throughput, channel efficiency and verifies performance superiority by comparing the existing TDMA protocols.