Communication Plug for Submarine Hull (ComPlug4SH)

To provide the U.S. Navy with an innovative, miniaturized, and non-intrusive undersea interface for hull penetration systems that will support long duration communication with external sensors, American GNC Corporation (AGNC) and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) are proposing the Communication Plug for Submarine Hull (ComPlug4SH) System. The ComPlug4SH system’s ultimate goal is to provide a silent communication bridge to transmit and receive data and power to external slow and fast sensors without perforations through thick metal barriers such as SUBSAFE structures, submarine hulls, or other U.S. Navy structures of interest, with integration to the internal backbone network, data acquisition systems, and computational platforms. During the Phase II base and Phase II Option-1, primary target sensing schemes that will be demonstrated are: CTDs, corrosion monitoring sensors, and accelerometers, where maintaining the high integrity standards of the SUBSAFE Requirements Manual is a core design constraint. The ComPlug4SH compiles State-of-the-Art (SOTA) technologies which include: (a) size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) optimized processing system and internal communication interfaces; (b) robust data (and power if needed) transferal through barriers; (c) interfaces to submarine networking systems; and (d) local processing that enables optional complementary operations such as self-diagnostics, control, and monitoring.