Using optical communication for remote underwater robot operation

• Main Authors: Doniec, Marek Wojciech (Author), Detweiler, Carrick (Contributor), Vasilescu, Iuliu (Contributor), Rus, Daniela L. (Contributor)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (Contributor), Karger, Marek Wojciech (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2012-09-04T18:04:31Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

Underwater vehicles are typically operated using a tether or a slow acoustic link. We present an underwater optical communication system that enables a high-throughput and low-latency link to an underwater robot. The optical link allows the robot to operate in cluttered environments without the need for a tether. We demonstrate the performance of the system in a number of experiments which characterize the optical link and demonstrate remote control of the robot using a human input device.
Singapore. Defence Science & Technology Agency
National Science Foundation (U.S.).
United States. Army Research Office. Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative. Swarms of Autonomous Robots and Mobile Sensors Project