High data rate acoustic link for Micro-ROVs, employing BICM-ID

This work addresses specific challenges posed by wireless communications for a Micro-Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV). The majority of research within this field has primarily focussed on reliable acoustic links for navigation purposes and low data rate communications for critical status updates (<;100bps). However, the feedback sent from the vehicle to the surface is often limited during operation with much of the data being retrievable only upon surfacing. This work focuses on producing a higher data rate link (<;80kbps) capable of reliable transmissions of sensor data from the vehicle, thus bridging the gap of current communication limitations. To minimise the overall system cost it is desirable to avoid the use of array receivers. This work uses a single element receiver, an adaptive equaliser structure paired with high order error correction codes and closed loop Doppler estimation. Results are presented from sea trial data processed in real time using a PC based receiver.