This proposal focuses on the networking of free-floating underwater observation systems through acoustic communications. These free-floating explorers drift along with the ocean currents and offer scientists a way to observe organisms and processes in their own frame of reference. The advantage of networking them together is that it allows information to be relayed to users in real time and perform coordinated tasks.
Intellectual Merit: The intellectual goal is to create new networking protocols that are tailored towards the unique challenges of acoustic underwater networks of these free-floating explorers. This includes self-localization methods that allow devices to efficiently track their continuously-changing physical position, while minimizing the associated energy cost. Novel routing protocols will be developed to relay information to the users within the unique constraints of the system. In addition to simulation studies and analytical analysis, the new protocols will also be tested in a real-life deployment at sea. Multiple drogues, equipped with sensors and a buoyancy control actuator, will be assembled to provide an experimental platform for testing the new ideas.
Broader Impacts: This project will have broader impacts on many levels. A group of autonomous drogues has the potential to vastly increase the space/time sampling of oceanic processes compared to what is currently possible with other techniques. This is paramount to progress in the field of oceanography. In addition, the results from the project will be integrated into the curriculum on underwater acoustics and on wireless networking at UCSD. The collaboration initiated in this proposal will also be carried forward into extended joint research, which will benefit researchers and students in both fields due to its diverse and inter-disciplinary nature. Through the Center for Educations Outreach Connections at Scripps, the results and overall vision can be disseminated to the public, via school presentations or exhibits.
