The Design and Implementation of an Underwater Multimode Acoustic Modem for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are efficient tools to explore oceans. Communication is a fundamental function of AUVs, therefore the development of underwater acoustic modems has drawn a great deal of attention. In this paper, the design and implementation of an underwater multimode acoustic modem for AUVs is presented. The modem contains two types of demodulations, noncoherent and coherent demodulation. Furthermore, a power selection strategy is integrated in the modem to fulfill the requirements of AUVs. We have experimentally evaluated the modem prototype in the lab and field.