Introduction
Project Outline
The main challenge of ACME is to enable the continuous monitoring of
the coastal underwater environment in areas (shipping lanes, fishing areas,
estuaries…), where means of communication other than acoustic are
prohibited, e.g. because of the high shipping intensity and/or large current.
These areas pose specifically high demands to the robustness of acoustic
communication links, since (a) high intensity close shipping generates
a high level of noise and rapidly changing propagation conditions and
(b) coastal areas involve most generally shallow water multipath propagation
channel with high temporal(phase) and spatial variability. In addition,
due to the restricted bandwidth and the condition that an acoustic unit
cannot in practice transmit and receive at the same time, a particular
attention must be paid to the protocol algorithms.
Scientific Objectives
ACME aims at designing robust communication and protocol algorithms,
which will be implemented and tested in a prototype of a shallow water
acoustic communication network capable of conveying data from several
underwater sensors to a central node. Such a non-invasive fully acoustic
network will be new in Europe.
The methodology to achieve the objectives is:
· Specification of system based mainly on the end users requirements.
The prototype system will allow monitoring of the environment in an area
of specific interest for the end users.
· Mock-up and realisation of the prototype (hardware and software).
This prototype will be based upon:
(a) parts of existing programmable acoustic modems. Use of existing hardware
subsystems, which have already proved their robustness at sea, in order
to concentrate most of the efforts on the main issue, i.e. robust communication
and protocol algorithms (b) ;
(b) advanced communication and protocol algorithms, investigated within
previous MAST3 projects, selected and improved here to increase robustness
and add networking capability;
· To test and evaluate the network in configurations needed for
applications of direct social interest (monitoring of pollution, measurement
of current and other water management related parameters ) in a realistic
environment as the Bay of Brest or the Westerschelde shipping lane.
At the end of the project it is expected to verify the value of a robust acoustic communication network in practice by integrating the prototype with the existing measurement infrastructure in the Westerschelde shipping lane, and to actually monitor the current during a time span of weeks.
Expected Impacts
The five ACME partners have been involved in the MAST 3 projects concerned with acoustic communications (ROBLINKS, SWAN, LOTUS), either as actually recognised specialists in this field area (TNO, University of Newcastle, ORCA, TUS SAS) or as a potential end user, widely experimented in oceanographic survey (RWS). All of them are convinced that the development of an acoustic communication network-system, such as the prototype which will be mock-up within ACME, is an essential part of a cost effective coastal zone monitoring system. This technology, which will allow permanent survey of sea environment in many strategic coastal areas where it is in practice impossible at the moment, will extend capability of oceanographic instrumentation systems. It should prove to be of very significant commercial and environmental value within the next ten years, thus improving in a significant manner safety and efficiency of underwater oil production, enhancing pollution monitoring, assisting pilot in routing ships and assisting marine operations during crisis such a wreckage. Europe could in this way establish itself as one of the leaders in this field place and thus place itself in a position to influence future international standards for sub-sea network communications.