The project team has developed a cohesive framework for high rate underwater communication via acoustic particle velocity channels. Propagation characteristics of such channels were studied and new communication and signal processing solutions were devised for transceiver design. Given the low data rates offered by the conventional technology and the high demand for fast data and video communication, the team plans to further develop the technology for widespread use. There is a need for improved underwater modems to communicate among underwater sensors, deep-water moored instruments, autonomous underwater vehicles, surface vessels, etc.
Widespread use of this technology has the potential to positively impact offshore oil and gas industry, fishing industry, environmental and ocean monitoring systems to predict natural disasters such as hurricanes, systems for inspection and repair of underwater constructions and facilities, ocean exploration, etc. The developed transformative technology to communicate via particle velocity channels is expected to have a technological impact on underwater communication systems, which have almost exclusively used the acoustic pressure channel for decades. The impact of the proposed plan, if successful, could be the significant advancement of the underwater communication technology in a number of different applications. This could result in a major enhancement of our ability to benefit from the many resources that underlay the world's oceans.
