Collaborative Research: NOSS: Autonomous Mobile Underwater SEnsor networks (AMUSE): Design and Applications

本项目研究自主移动水下传感器网络(AMUSE)的设计和应用，该网络由数量可变的声纳(传感器)和车辆组成，它们被部署在给定区域内执行协作任务。水声传感器网络(UWA-SNS)被设想用于物理和化学/生物指标的环境监测、战术监视、灾害预防、海底勘探和辅助导航等应用。目前正在探索的主要任务包括UWA-SN的自组织和部署、自重构(MAC、物理层和跨层设计)和任务感知波形设计/分集，以及应用于目标识别、目标跟踪和事件检测。HUSE项目的动机和目标是解决以下挑战：1)UWA-SN中的传感器价格昂贵且具有移动性，因此需要合理的自组织和自部署算法；2)主动声纳的UWA-SN的波形设计和分集仍处于起步阶段；3)发送和接收数据速率高度不对称，这需要新的MAC层设计；4)水下信道受到衰落、多径和多普勒频移的影响；5)GPS接收器在水下不能正常工作，因此需要新的定位/导航算法。娱乐项目的成功能够惠及两个紧迫的国家利益领域：(1)监测/预报自然海洋灾害的仪器，包括风暴潮、飓风、海啸等。(2)港口环境和安全。此外，该项目可作为促进跨学科研究生和本科生研究和教育的工具，并鼓励代表不足的学生和女学生参与。

This project investigates the design and applications of Autonomous Mobile Underwater SEnsor networks (AMUSE) consisting of a variable number of sonars (sensors) and vehicles that are deployed to perform collaborative tasks over a given area. Underwater acoustic sensor networks (UWA-SNs) are envisioned to enable applications for environmental monitoring of physical and chemical/biological indicators, tactical surveillance, disaster prevention, undersea exploration, and assisted navigation, etc. The major tasks under exploration include UWA-SN self-organization and deployment, self-reconfiguring (MAC, physical layer, and cross-layer design), and mission-aware waveform design/diversity with applications to target recognition, target tracking, and event detection. The AMUSE project is motivated by and targets to solve the following challenges: 1) the sensors in UWA-SN are expensive and mobile, therefore sound self-organization and self-deployment algorithms are needed; 2) waveform design and diversity for UWA-SNs with active sonars are still in its infancy; 3) the transmit and receive data rates are highly asymmetric, which requires new MAC layer design; 4) the underwater channel is impaired by fading, multipath, and doppler shift; 5) the GPS receivers do not work properly in underwater, thus new localization/navigation algorithms are required.The success of the AMUSE project is able to benefit the two areas of urgent national interests: (1) Instrumentation for monitoring/prediction of natural ocean disasters including storm surges, hurricanes, tsunami, etc. (2) Harbor environments and security. In addition, this project can serve as a vehicle to promote cross-disciplinary graduate and undergraduate research and education, and to encourage the participation of under-represented and female students.