Expanding the Underwater Communication Capabilities of Seafloor Ecosystem Monitoring Stand-Alone Platforms using Pop-Up Buoys

The Platform for Long-lasting Observation of Marine Ecosystems (PLOME) project aims to improve the communication capabilities of stand-alone seafloor platforms for monitoring marine ecosystems. PLOME project involves building a cooperative network that integrates several seafloor remote stations with AUVs and USVs to collect and transmit the data. One of the innovative ideas studied in PLOME is the integration of pop-up buoys with sensing, processing, and communication capabilities. These buoys are periodically released untethered from the seafloor node with part of its collected data, and become oceanic drifters that transmit this data and their position using a satellite link. This article describes the design of the pop-up project and discusses the technological challenges related to wireless underwater communication, automatic release systems, and robust satellite communication links. Preliminary tests demonstrate the feasibility of the project's implementation.