CAREER: Mobile Underwater Communications Networks Supported by Autonomous Surface Vehicles

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) represent a critical innovation in ocean exploration. However, wireless communication and networking capabilities among AUVs remain primitive, hindering marine technologies’ advancement. This CAREER project utilizes mobility to address challenges in underwater wireless communications and networking.

Equipped with multiple modes of communication devices, autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) are used to serve as communication base-stations for expanded coverage and enhanced data rates. This project develops new learning-based solutions by integrating knowledge from robotics, digital communications, networking, and machine learning. The proposed network contributes to ocean technologies as a flexible, low-cost facilitator, enabling effective sampling, exploration, and management of the ocean resources.

An underwater robotics competition for K-12 students will be launched following the successful regional MATHCOUNTS initiative. The outreach activities will strengthen the STEM competitiveness in the state of Alabama. The project’s overall goal is to support ocean science progress and the development of the future blue economy workforce.

This project envisions an underwater mobile multi-modal communication network with a fleet of ASVs and AUVs. Fundamental research issues are to be explored within this mobile network, for example, understanding how the mobile acoustic channel fluctuates in the micro-scale of tens of milliseconds and investigating the optimal ocean sampling strategy for given spatial correlation properties.

The gained insights will help develop innovative signal processing techniques at multiple layers, from channel modeling to system optimization. Three research thrusts will be launched, including 1) mobile acoustic channel modeling, 2) mobile adaptive acoustic communications, and 3) integrative sampling, communications, and navigation. Research evaluation will be conducted in both numerical simulations and field experiments.

The developed techniques will demonstrate how the science insights advance our abilities to precisely model the acoustic channel, reliably communicate, and effectively sample in the ocean. The project outcomes are expected to facilitate research of the next frontier, distributed adaptive ocean sampling.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.