Using an Electric Thruster as an Acoustic Transducer

Abstract The acoustic noise produced by thrusters is often viewed as undesirable and frequent efforts have been made to minimize this noise. This research investigates transmitting information by controlling the pulse width Modulation (PWM) noise produced by the thrusters. This research investigates using the thruster noise as the transmitter in a one-way acoustic data link. A 250 bit/s acoustic underwater communication link using a thruster as the signaling transducer was demonstrated at a range of 10m. A possible application as a navigation aid for docking is suggested.