A Communication Framework for Cost-Effective Operation of AUVs in Coastal Regions

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are revolutionizing oceanography. Most high-endurance and long-range AUVs rely on satellite phones as their primary communications interface during missions for data/command telemetry due to its global coverage. Satellite phone (e.g., Iridium) expenses can make up a significant portion of an AUV’s operating budget during long missions. Slocum gliders are a type of AUV that provide unprecedented longevity in scientific missions for data collection. Here we describe a minimally-intrusive modification to the existing hardware and an accompanying software system that provides an alternative robust disruption-tolerant communications framework enabling cost-effective glider operation in coastal regions. Our framework is specifically designed to address multiple-AUV operations in a region covered by multiple networked base-stations equipped with radio modems. We provide a system overview and preliminary evaluation results from three field deployments using a glider.We believe that this framework can be extended to reduce operational costs for other AUVs during coastal operations.