New concept of an electromagnetic usage for contactless communication and power transmission in the ocean

Abstract

We demonstrate a new concept of an electromagnetic usage in the sea. The concept is characterized by sharing one pair of transmitting and receiving antennas for contactless communication and power transmission. The antennas are designed as electromagnetic (EM) high-Q resonators and the lowest resonant frequency is used for power transfer. The higher frequency band is used for signal communications. Using this concept, the efficiency of power transfer can be relatively high and the high transmission rate can be possible. As a test trial for verifying the above concept, a measurement system is set up and the power transfer and signal quality are evaluated. The results show the power efficiency can be over 40%, and the transmission rate can be 20 Mbps via seawater of the 5 cm's thickness. The proposed concept can be used to realize a compact and maintenance-free wireless usage between different underwater systems, such as autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), remotely-operated vehicles (ROVs) and mother ships.

On the Path Loss Model for 5-GHZ Microwave-Based Pinless Subsea Connectors

“…Nowadays more and more technologies are being deployed in subsea environments for a variety of applications. Within the communication technologies, underwater pinless connectors have recently received great attention to overcome shortcomings of pin-to-pin connectors, being rapidly developed based on acoustics [1,2], optical [3,4] and electromagnetic (EM) signalling [5][6][7]. However, the subsea industry is calling for higher data rates over 100 Mbps for seawater gaps of several cm.…”

Study on high efficiency WPT underseas

“…One of the important examples is the WPT under seawater [2], which will be applied for the power station-AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) system on the ocean floor. It could improve the efficiency of marine resource exploration drastically.…”

Influence of temperature on signal attenuation at microwaves frequencies underwater

“…There are existing developments on underwater EM systems in frequencies below 100 MHz, and this is the typical upper frequency limit in recent studies on underwater EM systems. Electromagnetic usage for contactless communication and power transmission has been previously presented for lower frequencies bands [8]. There has previously been no focus on R&D in the GHz range.…”