SBIR Phase I: Megabit-Per-Second Underwater Wireless Communications

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project lies in addressing a long-standing roadblock to the further development of undersea technology. Today, there is no wireless broadband communication available underwater. Each remotely operated vehicle requires a tether for communication and a support ship for tether management. The proposed modem technology is video-capable and would obviate the need for tethering and expensive support ships. In 2013, the subsea industry demanded more than 123,000 ROV days and these are expected to increase to at least 140,000 days in 2017. An ROV support ship costs about $120k/day totaling over $7B spent on ROV support ships in 2013. The proposed video-capable modems would be sold to ROV manufacturers and operators that want to eliminate the need for ROV support ships and much of the $7B in associated cost. The proposed modem technology connects remotely operated vehicles and machinery to wired infrastructure, enabling safe operation of heavy subsea machinery without the possibility of cables or tethers getting tangled, causing damage or worse. This project will create 10 new jobs in the next three years, with many more to be added as the production is scaled-up. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project proposes to develop a faster, cheaper, more reliable wireless communication system for the sub-sea industry. Current state of the art communication links for the deep ocean are either tethered, requiring long, bulky, expensive cables to connect machinery and systems, or have extremely low data rates, enabling only the most rudimentary of tasks. The proposed underwater wireless communication system will provides data rates in the Mbps (megabits/sec) range - 1000 times faster than existing underwater wireless communication technologies - and enable video streaming and real-time control of subsea infrastructure, machinery, and mobile underwater vehicles. Since radio signals do not propagate far underwater, the proposed technology uses sound waves, as whales and dolphins do, for communication. The speed of sound is 200,000 times slower than the speed of radio propagation, and mobile acoustic transmitters and receivers hence suffer from severe Doppler distortion. The proposed technology dynamically measures, tracks, and compensates for this distortion, to enable wireless communication at data rates never before possible underwater.