ECE 4902 Spring 2008

Prototyping and Real Time Testing of Underwater Acoustic Modem

Final Report
Jason Thomas Electrical Engineering Abbas Zaidi Electrical Engineering Juny Thengumthyil Electrical Engineering

Advisor Shengli Zhou

Sponsor: University of Connecticut, ECE Department

Abstract: The aim of our senior design project is to prototype and test a stand-alone underwater acoustic modem, based on existing multicarrier modem designs tested mainly in a lab environment. Important aspects are signal amplification and system modularization. With signal amplification, we were able to transmit the signal for a range of almost 200 meters as opposed to the previous tests of distance about 1 meter. With system modularization, we were able to perform real time tests of the stand-alone modem in the lakes, rather than in the tanks. In the demonstration, transmitter is implemented in two ways. The first one uses a laptop with GUI interface and second one uses a DSP board which is programmed to send data in every 20sec. There are two receivers to be demonstrated, the first one uses Matlab programs on a laptop, while the second one is based on a DSP board containing all the system software. The DSP board, a power amplifier, batteries, and an underwater transducer/hydrophone are placed in a waterproof casing. Statement of need: Electromagnetic waves do not propagate in an effective manner through water. The use of acoustics for transmission provides an alternative method to efficiently transmit data under water. Sound waves were chosen because they propagate well in water and travel at a speed of about 1500m/s. Data transmission via waves also provides isolation between portions of a data transmission system. Much like a transformer, a failure on one side of the system would not have an effect on the other. This system also allows for minimal hardware to be in contact with the water media, and also provides a cost reduction by eliminating hard lines over large distances. Previous work: This is an ongoing project that has currently been implemented in two ways. The Fall 2006 groups method used code, programmed in Matlab, to transmit data between two laptops: one laptop was used in conjunction with a transmitter to send the signal, and the other laptop was connected to a receiver. The first laptop converted the digital data into sound signals. The transmitted signals were then received by the second laptop which

then converted the signal back into the original digital file. The system used Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing for the process. For underwater testing, a speaker and hydrophone were placed in a water tank. Instructions were then fed to the transmitting laptop, and the receiving laptop successfully acquired and decoded the data. This design allowed for the transmission of data, but had a limited range of about one meter. The Fall 2007 group modified the first project by implementing a three node relay using the same principles as that of the first design. The three nodes acted like a daisy chain, such that the communication between the end computers should be through the middle one .This modification provided an increase in transmission distance due to the middle computer acting as a relay unit. Another modification was the incorporation of a motion sensor. Whenever motion occurred, the computer attached to the sensor would wake up and record the data and send the data automatically to the other nodes. Further modifications are currently being implemented to make a four node relay/network. Approach: Our group had three major tasks: 1) Amplification of the transmitted signal 2) Build a transmitter module and a receiver module 3) Real time testing at Mansfield Hollow Lake and Mirror Lake. In order to amplify the signal, we had to purchase a power amplifier. Part of the research involved determining which class of amplifier to use for our application. The choices we looked at were class A, class B, class A/B, and class D. Class A required a lot more power, was less efficient and produced more heat. We decided against class B since it only amplifies 1800 of the signal. Class B amplifiers are also subjected to crossover distortion if a complementary transistor is added to obtain the other half of the signal. Class D amplifiers, though they are the most efficient, use pulse width modulation and current technology limits this class of amplifier to low frequency applications. Since our application uses a center band frequency of 12 KHz, this class cannot be used. Class A/B amplifiers incorporate the benefits and minimize the limitations of class A and class B amplifiers. Due to these findings, we decided to use a class A/B power amplifier.

There were two versions of the transmitter module as shown in phase two and phase three figures. The first version consisted of a transducer connected to a power amplifier which was connected to both to a 12V DC battery as a power supply, and a laptop which provided the input data for our system. The second version consisted of the same components, but used a programmed DSP board to provide the system input. These components were then placed in a water proof case, with the transducer placed in the water. Project Plan: Our project plan was divided into three phases Phase 1 Interface/ Testing Housing Battery Testing Real Time Tests Phase 2 Phase 3 PC based tests DSP based tests Amplification Signal Acquirement / Processing Amplification Signal Acquirement / Processing

Phase 2 schematic:

In this phase we used laptop sound cards to send and receive the data. Phase 3 schematic:

In phase 3, we assembled the prototypes using the DSP boards as the transmitter and receiver data encoders/decoders. Components:

The following are the components used, with specifications given below each figure. DSP Board TMS320C6713 (Used in phase 3)

Stand Alone Product Includes Audio Encoder and Decoder Includes Stereo IO Presonus TUBE Pre Mono Tube Pre Amplifier (DSP Pre Amp, used in phase 3)

Switchable phantom power 80 Hz low cut filter Up to 20 dB of tube drive 48V Phantom power

Pelican 1650 Waterproof Case

Outside Dimensions: Inside Dimensions: Weight: 37 lbs

32.50"L x 20.50"W x 11.31"D 29.00"L x 17.88"W x 10.50"D

Valve regulated- Gelled Electrolyte Battery

Dimensions: 8.31 x 5.13 x 7.25 Nominal Voltage: 12V Capacity: 36.5Ah Weight: 23.4 Lbs. Deepwater Omni directional Transducer

Freq Range: 1.00 Hz 45KHZ Input Power: 800 watts Resonance Freq: 33 kHz Oceanears DRS-8 Transducer

Freq Range: 200 Hz 32 kHz Input Power: 200 Watts (max)

MOSFET Bridgeable Power Amplifier

Peak Power: 200 W 2 channel THD @ 4: 0.01% S/N ratio : 102 dB High pass crossover Variable Low Pass Crossover Dimensions: 11.8 x 7.2 x 2.8 Weight: 7.8 pounds Miniature Reference Hydrophone

Freq Range: 1Hz to 170KHZ Sensitivity (dB re V/Pa): 211 High sensitivity, broad banded, and Omni directional

Aquarian AQ-3 Hydrophone

Freq Range: 20Hz - 100 kHz Low self noise Power Output: 300 mWatts Input Voltage: 6 15 Vdc VP 1000 Voltage Preamp

VP 1000 Voltage Preamp Input Impedance : 100MOhm Output Impedance: 10Ohm Operating Freq Range: 0.5 Hz to 1 MHz Preliminary Experimental results:

We used a Sony Xplode 300 Watt 2 channel car audio amplifier to amplify a signal sent to a transducer. The input to the amplifier was music from a laptop. We did this preliminary testing out of water to test whether our wiring and amplification idea would qualitatively work. The results of the experiment showed that the sound was in fact amplified using the car audio amplifier. But due to the high power of the amplifier (the transducer was rated for 200 Watt maximum input) the sound coming out of the transducer was distorted. Lowering the gain of the amplifier did correct the problem however. Taking this into account, we have concluded that we can use a smaller amplifier, which will also be a cost reduction, to begin testing of our project. Final Results (Phase 2): The following plots give the results obtained via laptop using Matlab coding. The top left graph gives the received data. The first packet is used to ensure proper signal synchronization and the second packet contains the actual transmitted data. The top right graph gives the impulse response of the channel. The bottom left graph is the Correlation Plateau, which shows an analysis of the first packet. It checks the first half of the packet against the second half. Both halves should be identical which would be indicated by a plateau equal to one. The code searches for the best correlation which is shown by the red line in the graph. The bottom right graph shows the data point acquisition. This graph is separated into four quadrants. The blue circles represent two bits of data: Quadrant 1: 00 Quadrant 2: 01 Quadrant 3: 10 Quadrant 4: 11 Deviation from the centre of the quadrants is due to noise interference. If the noise is high, it may cause the transferred two bits to appear in the wrong quadrant giving erroneous data, causing the signal to not decode properly.

Plot at 10m SNR: 15 dB

Plot at 20 m SNR: 12dB

Plot at 30m SNR: 16.7 dB

Plot at 50m SNR: 19.7dB

Plot at 100m SNR: 25dB

Plot at 150m SNR: 21.6

Timeline

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Research Purchasing Construction Testing Demo

Budget: Product MOSFET Bridgeable Power Amplifier Valve regulatedGelled Electrolyte Battery 12 Volt Battery Charger Pelican 1650 Waterproof case Miscellaneous Expenses Total 1 2 100 380 200 912 2 170 Quantity 1 Price 62

Problems Encountered: One of the problems we encountered was extraneous noise. When we first went out for testing we used the Aquarian AQ-3 hydrophone which did not have a signal filter.

This lead to triggering by any noise present in the water. To counter this problem, we had to turn up our trigger value which lowered the transmission distance. This happened because our signal had to be sent at higher gain values. At larger distances this lead to being at the saturation level of the speaker. As a solution to this problem, our advisor ordered the Miniature Reference hydrophone which included a high-pass filter and built in pre-amp. This hydrophone eliminated the motor boat noise and wildlife noise present in the lake. This dramatically increased our transmission distance. We did note that on a windy day the choppy water still caused some false triggers. But most of the other interference was eliminated. Another problem we encountered was the power supplies of the DSP boards. While reading the product manual in the first semester, we understood that a part could be ordered providing a 5V input to the DSP board from a 12V DC source. When we ordered this part, we realized that this connector was only to be used with a desktop computers power supply, so we could not use our original plan of using it with our 12V battery. To remedy this, we made 4.5V battery packs using battery holders and AA batteries, but their life span was approximately 30 minutes. Another issue was the power supply of the Presonus TUBE Pre Mono Tube Pre Amplifier used for the DSP board. It required a 16V AC input, which we were unable to provide in time for project completion deadline. We ordered a 12V DC pre-amp but its limitations proved inadequate for proper system operation. This was mainly due to this pre-amps inability to control its gain level. This was proved when we took this configuration out for testing in the lake. We were unable to receive any successful messages using this configuration. Conclusion: We met our goal of increasing the transmission distance from 1m to 100m. We got reliable transmission and reception from up to 200m. In fact we were able to get a successful decoded message from 700m using the phase 2 setup with the Oceanears DRS-8 Transducer and the Miniature Reference Hydrophone. But at this distance the reception is unreliable using our components because only about 1 in 10 messages get decoded correctly. We desired to do further testing with the Deepwater Omni directional Transducer, but weather and time constraints did not allow us to do so. From our

observation of using the higher quality hydrophone and in lab testing of using the superior DSP board, we believe that the higher quality transducer will significantly improve our results. Our other goal was to provide an independent prototype using off the shelf components. We were semi-successful in this case. Our phase 2 setup was implemented and provided the majority of our testing. But the phase 3 setup had power supply problems. The 12V DC DSP board pre-amp we purchased was inadequate. The phase 3 setup worked in the lab trials in the water tank. But data could not be properly received and decoded in the real time testing environment on the lake. We believe this is due to the pre amplifier. We think this was an excellent project and could be used in many applications including wireless unmanned submersible communication. We would like to thank Janny Liao and Sean Mason for helping us in the underwater acoustic modem lab. They provided all the code changes and DSP programming and helped us understand the system and designs of previous teams. We would also like to thank our advisor Dr. Shengli Zhou for the support of providing us with all the high-end components and helping us organize our research and testing efforts.