• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.435-449
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• 2020

This paper proposes a method to estimate the underwater target object's yaw angle using a sonar image. A simulator modeling imaging mechanism of a sonar sensor and a generative adversarial network for style transfer generates realistic template images of the target object by predicting shapes according to the viewing angles. Then, the target object's yaw angle can be estimated by comparing the template images and a shape taken in real sonar images. We verified the proposed method by conducting water tank experiments. The proposed method was also applied to AUV in field experiments. The proposed method, which provides bearing information between underwater objects and the sonar sensor, can be applied to algorithms such as underwater localization or multi-view-based underwater object recognition.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.16-25
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• 2015

Visual census and hydro-acoustic survey was carried out at Ulju small scale marine ranching area (MRA) to estimate demersal fish aggregations on September and November 2013. In this hydro-acoustic survey, the authors combined an image sonar with a scientific echo sounder to monitor an underwater situation and compare two acoustic data. Consequently, visual census survey was useful to estimate fish species composition for hydro-acoustic survey, because it is easy to identify aggregated fish species and overcome limits on a fishing depth and ability of an conventional fishing gear like a bottom gill-net or a fish trap at marine ranching area. Mean fish density was estimated as $0.757g/m^2$ on September and $0.219g/m^2$ on November and Fish abundance was finally calculated as 1.51ton (coefficient of variation, CV=13.1%) on September and 0.44ton (CV=47.7%) on November, respectively. Hydro-acoustic survey combined with the image sonar was useful to monitor fish aggregations and estimate fish stocks around artificial reefs at shallow coastal MRA. We were able to easily identify the underwater structures like an artificial reef and a fishing rope as well as fish aggregations from image sonar data. Therefore, the method was effective to separate unwanted echo signals in acoustic data of scientific echo sounder.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.95-103
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• 2013

An underwater acoustic (UWA) communication in shallow water is strongly affected by the water surface and the seabed acoustical properties. Every reflected signal to receiver experiences a time-variant scattering in sea surface roughness and a grazing-angle-dependent reflection loss in bottom. Consequently, the performance of UWA communication systems is degraded, and high-speed digital communication is disrupted. If there is a dominant signal path such as a direct path, the received signal is modeled statistically as Rice fading but if not, it is modeled as Rayleigh fading. However, it has been known to be very difficult to reproduce the statistical estimation by real experimental evaluation in the sea. To give an insight for this scattering and grazing-angle-dependent bottom reflection loss effect in UWA communication, authors conduct experiments to quantify these effects. The image is transmitted using binary frequency shift keying (BFSK) modulation. The quality of the received image is shown to be affected by water surface scattering and grazing-angle-dependent bottom reflection loss. The analysis is based on the transmitter to receiver range and the receiver depth dependent image quality and bit error rate (BER). The results show that the received image quality is highly dependent on the transmitter-receiver range and receiver depth which characterizes the channel coherence bandwidth.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.114-119
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• 2019

The transmitted acoustic signals are severely influenced by multiply reflected signals from boundaries, such as sea surface and bottom in the shallow water. Very large reflection signals from boundaries cause inter-symbol interference so that the performance of the underwater acoustic communication is degraded. Usually, the waveform shaping filters are used to prevent the reflected signals under this kind of acoustic channel. Especially, the raised cosine filter is widely used, which can also be used to restrict the bandwidth of the transmitted signal. In this study, we evaluate the raised cosine filter for image data transmission in the shallow water, and propose a new modified raised cosine filter. The QPSK (Quadrature Phase Shift Keying) system is used for the underwater acoustic communication simulations with different distances and symbol rates. As a result, the bit error rate was reduced from the minimum 1.0 % to the maximum 32 %.

• Proceedings of the Acoustical Society of Korea Conference
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• 1984.12a
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• pp.96-99
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• 1984

In this study, the underwater acoustic images were obtained by ultrasonicwave. The experiment was performed in the anechoic watertank, using a passive sonar array for one and two sound source respectively by X-Y scanning technique. The receiving array was consist of 8 disc type transducers with 1.5cm diameter at 25KHz resonance frequency. The scanned data were processed by the FORTRAN IV algorithm for the reconstruction of image, and the image had some noise due to the surface reflected waves. As the result, it was found that the acoustic imaging by electrical deflection and dynamic focusing technique is applicable to SONAR with the suppression of surface reflected wave.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.65 no.1
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• pp.135-141
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• 2016

Recently, the needs for the development and application of marine robots are increasing as marine accidents occur frequently. However, it is very difficult to acquire the information by utilizing marine robots in the marine environment. Therefore, the needs for the researches of sensor networks which are composed of underwater, surface and aerial robots are increasing in order to acquire the information effectively as the information from heterogeneous robots has less limitation in terms of coverage and connectivity. Although various researches of the sensor network which is based on marine robots have been executed, all of the underwater, surface and aerial robots have not yet been considered in the sensor network. To solve this problem, a collaborative control method based on the acoustic information and image by the sonars of the underwater robot, the acoustic information by the sonar of the surface robot and the optical image by the camera of the static-floating aerial robot is proposed. To verify the performance of the proposed method, the collaborative control of a MUR(Micro Underwater Robot) with an OAS(Obstacle Avoidance Sonar) and a SSS(Side Scan Sonar), a MSR(Micro Surface Robot) with an OAS and a BMAR(Balloon-based Micro Aerial Robot) with a camera are executed. The test results show the possibility of real applications and the need for additional studies.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.7
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• pp.366-374
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• 2007

In underwater wireless communication, needs for long distance communication using the high frequency are surpassing ones of short range communication by ultrasonic wave, and demands for transmitting and receiving various data such as voice or high resolution image data are increasing as well. In this work, we studied the effects on the real underwater communication depending on the difference of digital modulation methods. Simulation shows that only the performance of GMSK among many other PSK based modulation schemes(BPSK, QPSK, MSK, GMSK) is significant. Test condition simulates the oceanographic conditions along the 207-survey line, 15Km south of Busan and SNR is maintained 35dB or below. Simulated tests are composed of both transmitting image data($3{\times}10^5$ pixel, 4 bit per pixel) and voice communication($10^{-2}$BER, channel capacity of 1Kbps). Test results show that there are gain of about 7 seconds in transmission time in image transmission case, where channel capacity for BPSK, QPSK, and MSK and for GMSK were 65 Kbps and 45 Kbps, respectively and gain of about 8Km in distances in voice communication case.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.33-40
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• 2011

In this paper, underwater acoustic communication experiment was carried out to test a performance of single carrier digital modulation schemes. The communication experiment was performed at real sea and tested modulation schemes are ASK, FSK with non-coherent detection and QPSK with coherent detection. A modulated image data was transmitted with data rates of 600bps~3Kbps. From the results of BER of the demodulated signal, ASK and FSK show the achievable BER of $10^{-3}{\sim}10^{-4}$ without compensation techniques and QPSK show that of $10^{-4}$ with linear equalizer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.754-757
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• 2007

In this paper, we present an implementation and it's real-sea test of an underwater acoustic data communication system, which allows the system to reduce complexity and increase robustness in time variant underwater environments. For easy adaptation to complicated and time-varying environments of the ocean, all-digital transmitter and receiver systems were implemented. For frame synchronization the CAZAC sequence was used, and QPSK modulation/ demodulation method with carrier frequency of 25kHz and a bandwidth of 5kHz were applied to generate 10kbps transmission rate including overhead. To improve transmission quality, we used several techniques and algorithms such as adaptive beamforming, adaptive equalizer, and convolution coding/Viterbi decoding. for the verification of the system performance, measurement of BER has been done in a very shallow water with depth of 8m at JangMok, Geoje. During the experiment, image data were successfully transmitted up to about 7.4km.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.432-440
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• 2009

Recently, the necessity of underwater acoustic communication and demand for transmitting and receiving various data such as voice or high resolution image data are increasing as well. The performance of underwater acoustic communication system is influenced by underwater channel characteristic. Especially, a delay spread caused by reverberation and multi-path induces the ISI (Inter-Symbol-Interference) and reduces the communication performance. In this paper, we study the OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) technique for robust the delay spread in underwater channel. We also use the clipping method to overcome the performance degradation in high PAPR (Peak-to-Average Power Ratio). We confirm the performances of underwater communication system by the underwater channel model simulation model and experiment in small water tank. As a result, the multi-carrier modulation with clipping method presented low BER and the previous single carrier modulation had high BER.