Field Tests of the Software Defined Modem Prototype for the MODA Project

Underwater acoustic communications has developed to such a stage that new applications and functionalities emerged in various fields of the human activities, from military missions to commercial operations. A new field of application is the use of underwater vehicles in swarms, operating in a coordinated fashion to perform tasks that would be harder, or dangerous, for humans or single vehicles. Swarms of underwater drones require the use of very flexible and high-performance wireless modems: in the context of a national funded project we developed a Software Defined Modem (SDM) to be employed in lightweight underwater vehicles. This work presents the tests of the communications capability of the modem in a very shallow environment. The tests proved the validity of the modem design, still at the prototype stage, and shed light on the areas that are worth investigating to further improve its performance. Additionally, we demonstrate that it is possible to build an SDM, capable of real-time communications, using only off-the-shelf and easily accessible hardware and software tools.