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

该项目研究了自主移动的水下传感器网络（AMUSE）的设计和应用，该网络由可变数量的声纳（传感器）和车辆组成，这些声纳和车辆被部署在给定区域内执行协作任务。 水下声传感器网络（UWA-SNs）被设想为使物理和化学/生物指示物的环境监测、战术监视、灾害预防、海底探测和辅助导航等应用成为可能。 正在探索的主要任务包括UWA-SN自组织和部署，自重新配置（MAC，物理层和跨层设计），以及任务感知波形设计/多样性与目标识别，目标跟踪和事件检测的应用。AMUSE项目的动机和目标是解决以下挑战：1）UWA-SN中的传感器昂贵且移动的，因此需要良好的自组织和自部署算法; 2）具有主动声纳的UWA-SN的波形设计和多样性仍处于起步阶段; 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）水下信道受衰落、多径和多普勒频移的影响; 5）GPS接收机在水下不能正常工作，因此需要新的定位/导航算法。AMUSE项目的成功能够使两个迫切的国家利益领域受益：（1）风暴潮、飓风、海啸等海洋自然灾害的监测/预测仪器。（2）港口环境与安全。此外，该项目可以作为一种工具，促进跨学科的研究生和本科生的研究和教育，并鼓励代表性不足的学生和女生的参与。

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.