Acoustic communication between two autonomous underwater vehicles

This paper describes a project designed to investigate and demonstrate communication between two autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). The basic concept of multiple cooperating AUVs implies that these systems must, of necessity be able to communicate with each other in some meaningful way. This paper presents the results of in-water field experiments in which two AUV systems were able to communicate with each other using acoustic modems while conducting a simple mission. The AUVs used in this project were two EAVE III systems developed by the Marine Systems Engineering Laboratory (MSEL). A pair of acoustic telemetry modems (ATMs) acquired from Datasonics Inc. provided the communication channel. The experiments successfully demonstrated (1) simultaneous navigation of two AUVs within a single transponder network, (2) acoustic exchange of data (both ways) between the two vehicles, (3) runtime modifications of acoustic link parameters (BPS rate, packet size), and (4) modification of one vehicle's mission by the other vehicle while underway via communication over the acoustic channel.