Underwater Communication and Position Reference System

Abstract

This report presents results obtained in the CageReporter project regarding the development of a low cost hydroacoustic subsea communication system adapted for use in fish cages. The report mainly addresses tasks regarding the optimization of sender and receiver technology, as well as algorithms for advanced signal processing to optimize bandwidth while ensuring stable real-time communication during operations in fish cages. The solutions have been tested and validated in full scale field trials in two fish farms. In addition, this activity presents a solution developed to obtain a relative position reference system where the main challenge was to develop a realistic real-time map of the fish cage. The report describes the analytical study that conducted to place the acoustic transmitters. The proposed configuration has been tested in full scale. Afterwards, the obtained experimental data have been used to develop and validate numerical methods that estimate a high-resolution real-time map of the fish cage. The work furthermore includes the development of algorithms for state estimation to increase accuracy and reduce target noise. The accuracy of the position reference system has been validated through multiple filed trials.