Real-Time External Sensor Probe that is Deployed from an Underwater Vehicle

Areté Associates, with critical technical support from QinetiQ North America (QNA) proposes development and demonstration of a full-duplex, underwater acoustic communications network, which includes an air/sea communications interface solution. QNA’s full-duplex DOLPHIN™ acoustic modem technology will be integrated with Areté’s, Expendable Data Exfiltration (EDEX) technology to create a full-duplex, expendable gateway node named the EDEX/DOLPHIN™ Gateway (EDG). This proposed SBIR Phase II work for EDG development will be structured into two segments. Segment 1, commencing in FY 2019, will develop and demonstrate a prototype EDG node that resides within a full-duplex, acoustic modem communications network consisting of 3 nodes total. This demonstration will use two existing DOLPHIN™/WHOI nodes developed with QNA internal IRAD funding. Segment 2 will begin 12 months after Segment 1, and will focus on maturing and miniaturizing the EDG node and integrating a DOLPHIN™/WHOI Micro-Modem, or alternative, into a GFE-supplied UUV. Segment 2 testing will feature three DOLPHIN™ nodes forming an ad hoc communications swarm. In Segment 2, one of the static nodes will be an EDG allowing data relay back to base. The moving UUV node will probe the limits of communications vertically through the ocean layers, and horizontally, at distant standoff ranges.