Project Readiness Package Rev 5/14/13

Administrative Information:

·  Project Name (tentative): / Underwater Acoustic Communication
·  Project Number, if known: / R13201

·  Preferred Start/End Semester in Senior Design:

Fall/Spring / Spring/Fall

·  Faculty Champion:

Name / Dept. / Email / Phone
A. Kwasinski / CE / / 585-475-5139

·  Other Support, if known:

Name / Dept. / Email / Phone

·  Project “Guide” if known:

·  Primary Customer, if known (name, phone, email): Kevin Meredith, 714-418-6744

·  Sponsor(s):

Name/Organization / Contact Info. / Type & Amount of Support Committed
Boeing Corporation / / Unknown


Project Overview:

Boeing is predominantly only known for its success in aviation despite having over 40 years of experience with maritime vehicle systems. Submersible vehicles by nature are plagued by many factors that make underwater operation very difficult when compared to similar vehicles that operate above water. Boeing has selected RIT as an academic partner to pursue research in a number of fields related to underwater robotics technologies that will help alleviate many of the complications that make underwater operation so challenging. RIT was chosen for this collaboration due to RIT’s focus on industry-inspired research projects at all levels.

The objective of this collaboration is the creation of interdisciplinary design projects for Senior Design, competitive student teams, and future graduate students. These projects include many of the major subsystems which would be required for the development of a new Unmanned Underwater Robot, or UUR. The specific areas of development for these projects are limited bandwidth communications in marine environments, autonomous systems in marine environments, navigation in GPS denied environments, energy systems including generation, propulsion and storage, and innovative payload and sensor systems to meet customer needs. Through these projects, Boeing and RIT are looking to lay the groundwork for further future collaborations. As part of this partnership, Boeing is also looking to establish a laboratory at RIT that pursues up and coming technology and undertakes leading research into underwater robotics technology.

As part of this collaboration, a road map of projects for future Senior Design and graduate theses was laid out. The road map of projects shows the project areas as well as the interactive nature of the projects. The roadmap combines Senior Design projects, graduate theses and Robotics club projects to further the development of the RIT and Boeing relationship.
Boeing and RIT Project Roadmap:

Boeing currently utilizes Radio Frequency (RF) communication for above water applications however, this communication is restricted underwater. As a result, Boeing uses acoustic communication for its underwater systems. This technology, however, has a very long range but a low data rate and large footprint. In order to enhance their underwater communications, Boeing is interested in pursuing new underwater communication systems that will give them the ability to communicate over the same amount of distance underwater but with a higher data rate and a more secure communication. This project is meant to be a predecessor to laser and LED underwater communication systems. It is meant to be an initial project, a proof of concept that RIT has the capability to do this, to introduce underwater communications to students and faculty at RIT to bring in interest for graduate research in order to improve each system. The goal for this project is to create two housings, one for the transmitter and one for the receiver as well as initial attempts to encrypt the acoustic transmission if time allows. Following this project is graduate research into a smaller footprint for the communication and higher level of encryption without losing the data transfer rate. This project will be used in the first stage of the new Underwater Robotics club, which is a subdivision of RIT’s Robotics club, and swarm robotics.

Detailed Project Description:

·  Customer Needs and Objectives:

Category / Number / Importance / Description
Communicate in Underwater Environment / C1 / 3 / communicate underwater
C2 / 1 / suitable for long range
C3 / 3 / suitable for short range
C4 / 3 / fast communication
C5 / 2 / secure communication
Easy to Implement / E1 / 3 / fits within budget
E2 / 2 / Low power consumption
Easy to Maintain / M1 / 2 / requires infrequent maintenance
M2 / 2 / easy to repair
M3 / 2 / durable/rugged
M4 / 3 / corrosion-resistant

1 = low importance, 2 = medium importance, 3 = high importance

·  Functional Decomposition:

·  Potential Concepts:

Concept 1
Means / Compress/ Decompress / Encrypt/ Decrypt / Encode/ Decode / Modulate/ Demodulate / Transmit/ Receive
1 / LZMA / RSA / Manchester / Digital Data, Digital Signal / Single spectrum
2 / bzip2 / PGP / NRZ / Analog Data, Digital Signal / Multi-spectrum
3 / PPMd / SHA-1 / NRZ-I / Power control circuit
4 / DSA
5 / none
Concept 2
Means / Compress/ Decompress / Encrypt/ Decrypt / Encode/ Decode / Modulate/ Demodulate / Transmit/ Receive
1 / LZMA / RSA / Manchester / Digital Data, Digital Signal / Single spectrum
2 / bzip2 / PGP / NRZ / Analog Data, Digital Signal / Multi-spectrum
3 / PPMd / SHA-1 / NRZ-I / Power control circuit
4 / DSA
5 / none

·  Specifications (or Engineering/Functional Requirements):

Source / Specification (metric) / Unit of measure / Ideal Value / Marginal Value
S1 / C4 / Bit Rate / kb/s / 15 / ±5
S2 / C1, C2, C3 / Range / m / 30 / ±5
S3 / E2 / Power Consumption / Watts / 10-15
S4 / C1, C2 C3 / Signal to Noise Ratio / dB / >3
S5 / C1, C2, C3, C4 / Probability of Errors / <10^-2
S6 / C1, C2, C3 / Bandwidth / kHz / 10-50
S7 / C1 / Waterproof to X depth / m / 10
S8 / C5 / Encryption / bits / 56
S9 / C4 / Compression Ratio / 25:1
S10 / E1 / System Cost / $ / 1,500

·  Constraints:

o  The cost is below $1,500. Below is a potential concept where the components cost $910 and the housings cost $481. The remaining budget will be used to pay for the pool use and any unexpected costs.

Electrical System: / $
Acoustic transducer / 50
Hydrophone / 150
Microprocessor (2) / 400
15 W Power Supply / 60
Acoustic modulator / 25
Acoustic demodulator / 25
PCB for modulator/demodulator (2) / 200
Total - Electrical System: / 910
Housing:
Glass / 50
Marine-grade aluminum / 150
Fasteners / 20
Cables / 20
Hooks / 0.5
Total - 2 Housings: / 481
Total System Cost / 1391

o  The housings, power supplies, and microprocessors allow the ability to integrate future projects with laser and LED communications.

o  The system is to be tested in the RIT pool with times set up for use and the temperature and turbidity of the pool are to be measured with each test.

o  The system can be powered by a battery in the housing even if it is initially powered from outside of the system.

·  Project Deliverables: Underwater housings for the transmitters and receiver and a proof of concept for acoustic underwater communication at RIT. If time allows, the encryption of this communication should be looked into and placed into the system.

·  Budget Estimate: $1,750 - $1,000 for the components, $500 for the two housings and $250 for other expenses including the use of the RIT pool.

·  Intellectual Property (IP) considerations: N/A

·  Other Information: N/A

·  Continuation Project Information, if appropriate: No prior projects. The project will be built using the information obtained spring, 2013. There are projects following this which are looking to use the same microprocessors, housings and power supplies.

Student Staffing:

·  Anticipated Staffing Levels by Discipline:

Discipline / How Many? / Anticipated Skills Needed
EE / 2 / Spec out modulator, demodulator, transducer and hydrophone. Look into future components and relay information to Mechanical Engineering students. Work simultaneously with CE student to ensure everything will work together. (Chris Monfredo and Chris Johnson are two EE students interested in this project.)
ME / 2 / Design of housing and mounts for the internal components of the system. The design should incorporate future iterations of the project in order to reduce spending during the next iteration. (Greg Davis and Scott Hambleton are two ME students interested in this project.)
CE / 1 / Spec out microprocessor and work on programming for encoding, decoding, compression and decompression. Work simultaneously with EE students to ensure everything will work together. If time allows, work on encryption of data using 56 bit encryption. (Jon Holton is a CE student interested in this project.)
ISE
Other


Other Resources Anticipated:

Category / Description / Resource Available?
Faculty / Dr. Andres Kwasinski
Environment / MSD Design Center
Machine Shop & Brinkman lab
Senior Design Lab
Judson/Hale Aquatic Center
Equipment
Materials
Other
Prepared by: / Nicholas Greco / Date: / 5/14/13

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