I-Corps: Underwater Wireless Communications for the Blue Economy

更广泛的影响/商业潜力是水下无线通信系统的潜在发展。与陆地通信相比，水下通信具有低数据速率，因为它使用声波而不是电磁波。所提出的通信调制解调器使用高频声学频带来支持高数据速率。它可能对海洋技术和应用产生重大影响，如自主水下航行器、海洋导航和沿海测绘、海洋能源采集以及水下传感和测量。AUV市场和水声通信领域预计将成为未来五年增长最快的蓝色经济领域，复合年增长率分别为23.1%和10.8%。拟议的技术可能有潜力使和加速可能影响蓝色经济增长的水声通信系统的商业化，这个I-Corps项目是基于开发利用多输入多输出通信技术实现高数据速率的水声发射机和接收机。 所提出的技术利用大量的发射和接收元件以及接收器算法来潜在地提高可靠性和数据速率。30多个真实的海洋和湖泊实验表明，与传统的声学调制解调器相比，其数据速率可能提高20倍~ 100倍。 此外，所提出的技术可以以200 kbps - 500 kbps的速率传输压缩视频和图像，而传统的水声调制解调器只能以5 kbps - 10 kbps的速率传输文本或低速率传感数据。该技术可以使水下WiFi服务连接许多水下物联网（IoUT），如水下传感器和自主水下航行器（AUV），并支持通过水的无线视频传输。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential is the potential development of underwater wireless communication systems. Compared to terrestrial communication, underwater communications have low data rates because it uses acoustic waves instead of electromagnetic waves. The proposed communication modem uses high-frequency acoustic bands to support high data rates. It may have a significant impact on ocean technologies and applications, such as autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV), ocean navigation and coastal mapping, ocean energy harvesting, and underwater sensing and surveying. The AUV market and the underwater acoustic communication sector are predicted to be the fastest-growing blue economy sectors in the next five years with a 23.1% and 10.8% CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate), respectively. The proposed technology may have the potential to enable and accelerate the commercialization of underwater acoustic communication systems that may impact the growth of the blue economy.This I-Corps project is based on the development of underwater acoustic transmitters and receivers that leverage multiple-input multiple-output communication technology to achieve high data rates. The proposed technology utilizes a large number of transmitting and receiving elements, as well as receiver algorithms to potentially improve the reliability and data rate. More than 30 real ocean and lake experiments have demonstrated potential 20x ~100x higher data rates than conventional acoustic modems. In addition, the proposed technology may transmit compressed videos and images at a 200 kbps – 500 kbps rate while the conventional underwater acoustic modem can transmit only text or low-rate sensing data at 5 kbps – 10 kbps. The technology may enable underwater WiFi services to connect many Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT) such as underwater sensors and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and support wireless video transmission through water.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.