• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.425-430
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• 2013

Robust and high speed underwater communication is severely limited when compared to communications in terrestial. In free space, RF communication operates over long distances at high data rates. However, the obstacle in seawater is the severe attenuation due to the conducting nature. Acoustic modems are capable of long range communication up to several tens of kilometers, but it has low data-rate, high power consumption and low propagation speed. An alternative means of underwater communication is based on optics, wherein high data rates are possible. In this paper, the characteristics of underwater channel in the range of visible wavelength is investigated. And the possibility of optical wireless communication in underwater is also described. The LED-based transceiver and CMOS sensor module are integrated in the system, and the performance of image transmission was demonstrated.

• International Journal of Ocean System Engineering
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.60-67
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• 2011

This paper presents an in-situ correction method to compensate for the position error of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) near the sea floor. AUVs generally have an inertial navigation system assisted with auxiliary navigational sensors. Since the inertial navigation system shows drift in position without the bottom reflection of a Doppler velocity log, external acoustic positioning systems, such as an ultra short baseline (USBL), are needed to set the position without surfacing the AUV. The main concept of the correction method is as follows: when the AUV arrives near the sea floor, the vehicle moves around horizontally in a circular mode, while the USBL transceiver installed on a surface vessel measures the AUV's position. After acquiring one data set, a least-square curve fitting method is adopted to find the center of the AUV's circular motion, which is transferred to the AUV via an acoustic telemetry modem (ATM). The proposed method is robust for the outlier of USBL, and it is independent of the time delay for the data transfer of the USBL position with the ATM. The proposed method also reduces the intrinsic position error of the USBL, and is applicable to the in-situ calibration as well as the initialization of the AUVs' position. Monte Carlo simulation was conducted to verify the effectiveness of the method.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.284-294
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• 2008

In this paper, we describe an implementation of small mobile robot that can be used at research and application of mobile sensor networking. This robot that will constitute the sensor network, as a platform of multi-robot system for each to be used as sensor node, has to satisfy restrictions in many aspects in order to perform sensing, communication protocol, and application algorithms. First, the platform must be designed with a robust structure and low power consumption since its maintenance after deployment is difficult. Second, it must have flexibility and modularity to be used effectively in any structure so that it can be used in various applications. Third, it must support the technique of wireless network for ubiquitous computing environment. At last, to let many nodes be scattered, it must be cost-effective and small. Considering the above restrictions of the mobile platform for sensor network, we designed and implemented robots control the current of actuator by using additional circuit for power efficiency. And we chose MSP430 as MCU, CC2420 as RF transceiver, and etc, that have the strength in the aspect of power. For flexibility and modularity, the platform has expansion ports. The results of experiments are described to show that this robot can act as sensor node by RF communication process with Zigbee standard protocol, execute the navigation process with simple obstacle avoidance and the moving action with RSSI(Received Signal Strength Indicator), operate at low-power, and be made with approx. $100.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.37C no.12
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• pp.1318-1327
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• 2012

With the recent increased risk of livestock disease spread and human infection, livestock disease control has become very important. Consequently, there has been an increased attention on an implantable real-time monitoring and traceability system for individual cattle. Therefore, we have developed a robust monitoring and traceability system based on an implantable MFAN/RFID sensor tag. Our design combines the MFAN technology that is capable of robust wireless communication within cattle sheds and the 900MHz RFID technology that is capable of wireless communication without battery. In MFAN/RFID implantable sensor tag monitoring system, UHF sensor tag is implanted under the skin and accurately monitors the body temperature and biological changes without being affected by external environment. In order to acquire power needed by the tag, we install a MFAN/RFID tranceiver on the neck of cattle. The MFAN coordinator passes through the MFAN node and the RFID-reader-combined MFAN/RFID transceiver and transmits/receives the data and power for the sensor tag. The data stored in the MFAN coordinator is transmitted via the internet to the livestock history monitoring system, where it is stored and managed. By developing this system, we hope to alleviate the problems related to livestock disease control.