Autonomous acoustic-aided optical localization for data transfer

Abstract

The emergence of high speed optical communication systems has introduced a method for transferring data relatively quickly underwater. This technology coupled with autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) has the potential to enable efficient wireless data transfers underwater. Data muling, a data transport mechanism in which AUVs visit remote sensor nodes to transfer data, enables remote data to be recovered cheaply from underwater sensors. This paper details efforts to develop a system to reduce operational complexities of autonomous data-muling. We report a set of algorithms, systems, and experimental results of a technique to localize a sub-sea sensor node equipped with acoustic and optical communication devices with an AUV. Our homing system was designed to utilize the long-range, lowpower acoustic signal to determine the sensor location from great distances. When within optical communication range, it exploits the optical power pattern to center the vehicle over the sensor node for optimum data transfer. These implementations were tested over three dives at varying levels of automation. Data collected from the real-time system has been tested in full-automation mode within our simulation environment.