Evaluating RF Data Transmission for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles for a Biomimicry Fish

Underwater Wireless Communications (UWC) are extremely challenging. To understand and overcome this the paper examines the effectiveness of Radio Frequency (RF) data transmission for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs). A NodeMCU v3 ESP8266 board was used for this experiment to understand the bandwidth of 2.4 GHz RF communications in underwater environments. Key performance metrics like signal strength, latency, data loss, and speed were measured to understand the data transmissions. These findings highlight the challenges of RF signal underwater including attenuation and multipath effects. The results will help us understand the potential for real time sensor transmission that can be used in biomimicry of underwater robots. This will help us understand future advancements in RF, AUVs, and UWC technology.