Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	GR/L11670/01
Title:	ROBUST BIDIRECTIONAL COMMUNICATIONS FOR UUVS
Principal Investigator:	Hinton, Professor O
Other Investigators:	Sharif, Professor B Adams, Mr A Sharif, Professor B
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:	Pre Nexus Migration
Department:	Electrical, Electronic & Computer Eng
Organisation:	Newcastle University
Scheme:	Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts:	01 May 1997	Ends:	30 September 1999	Value (£):	187,703
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Digital Signal Processing Underwater Engineering
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Manufacturing
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
There are two principle requirements for UUV communications: A high data rate up-link from the UUV to the surface for retrieving sensor data such as video and sonar images and a substantially lower data rate, but very reliable, bi-directional link for communicating command and status signals between the ship and UUV. The current use of umbilical cables limits UUV performance because cable management is both costly and dangerous. In the sub-sea acoustic communication channel, the main problems arise from increasing acoustic attenuation with frequency and range, time-varying multipath (reverberation), and relative movement of the boat and vehicle. Many existing acoustic communication systems are consequently too low in data rate to be useful, and too intermittent for reliable use. Results from work at Newcastle, sponsored through TUUVI, have established beyond doubt that coherent modulation methods such as PSK (phase shift keying), coupled with modern adaptive receiver techniques, can yield substantially higher data rates for the up-link than hitherto thought possible, both in vertical and horizontal shallow channels. Up to 40 kbits/s appears possible for ranges up to 3km. This project aims to develop these techniques to achieve reliability in realistic operating environments and conditions, and to modify them to realise a secure bi-directional link.
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Organisation Website:	http://www.ncl.ac.uk