Plasmonic - Surface Electromagnetic Wave Communication for subsea asset inspection

Underwater wireless communications able to support real-time teleoperated tools and robotics remain a challenging topic and one of great interest for many marine applications. The use of Plasmonic-Surface Electromagnetic Waves (P-SEW) has been assessed for providing low latency, high bandwidth connectivity to Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) for inspection of subsea assets. The evaluations show that as the through-water communication distance increases the dominant transmission path will tend toward surfaces where a conductivity mismatch exists, such as the sea surface or a metal structure. Considering this behavior, the team has identified application cases that benefit from the transmission characteristics and utilize this to support low latency, high data rate communication to devices on and around submerged assets. This P-SEW approach is promising for increased penetration ranges through seawater at the lower Radio Frequency (RF) bands, and this paper proposes a stepwise evaluation, considering the opportunities for use of higher frequency P-SEW communications on and around submerged assets and infrastructure, such as toward inspection vehicles and sensors.