Presenting RedWAVE, a ready and available underwater GPS system

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Yulia

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Hello everyone!

We're Underwater Communication & Navigation Laboratory (UC&NL). We develop and manufacture a number of underwater wireless navigation & communication solutions.

Let us tell you about our unique underwater navigation system RedWAVE. This system provides simultaneous positioning of an unlimited number of objects in the water area with a nominal accuracy of 0.5 m at distances up to 2 km.

To know more, read the text below.

ei_Kulagin_a_diver_from_the_Underwater_Cultural_Heritage_NGO_with_the_Red_WAVE_navigation_system.png


Modern life is hard to imagine without the GPS and GLONASS satellite navigation systems. However, radio waves do not penetrate water, and until recently, underwater navigation was available only to the military or in the form of fabulously expensive industrial solutions.

Underwater, inertial navigation is possible based on the calculation of an object’s movement from a known point on the surface, but even the most expensive systems give an error accumulation of hundreds of meters in half an hour. To understand all the difficulties in creating a good inertial system, imagine that you are blindfolded and driven around the city by car. Memorizing all the turns, acceleration and deceleration, you try to figure out where you are. But over time, you will not only cease to understand the movement of the car, but also the speed at which it is moving.

There are also acoustic signals in water. Our cohabiters on the planet who live in the oceans long ago learned to use sound for underwater navigation instead of sight.

In the last five to seven years, a lot of information has appeared online promising consumers various extents of "real underwater GPS,” but officially no one has yet announced the start of sales. No one, that is, except us.

The Underwater Communication & Navigation Laboratory (UC&NL) team set itself the goal of making a reliable system that offers similar functionality to that of regular GPS and GLONASS, is easy to use and works underwater.

We took the functioning of satellite navigation systems as a basic principle, but instead of satellites, four small RedBASE buoys on the surface of the water retransmit the satellite signal underwater in the form of acoustic waves. This type of navigation system is called a long base-line, or LBL.

The_Red_NAV_diver_navigational_receiver_in_action_Photo_UC_NL.png


It takes only 10-15 minutes to position the buoys on the surface of the water before diving. After that an unlimited number of divers wearing the RedNAV navigation device or underwater robots fitted with RedNODE navigation receivers can simultaneously determine their exact geographical position underwater. Like GPS navigators, the RedNAV navigation device saves the full route of the diver's movements. Divers can also upload up to 20 points along the route in advance via Bluetooth. Once underwater, divers can mark their location with a single click of a button. It can then be unloaded from the device together with the route, saved or uploaded to Google Earth.

Never before has underwater navigation been so close in terms of simplicity and accuracy to regular overland navigation. The navigation receiver is available in two versions: for divers, with information output to an OLED display, and for underwater robots. A unified protocol with standard GPS/GLONASS navigators makes working with our device virtually no different from working with conventional GPS modules.

The unique technology of digital broadband hydroacoustic noise-immune communication makes it possible to obtain position accuracy of about one meter, even in difficult conditions with strong signal reflections (this effect in acoustics is called multipath).

Instead of promises, we can show routes received by our devices in real bodies of water:
2017_06_12_22_36_26.png


On this route, you can see how the diver passed near the buoys with ease and returned to the starting point.

Below is the route of another diver, who swam more than 200 meters and returned along exactly the same route, retracing his steps to within less than one meter:
Screenshot_23_10_2016.png


The RedWAVE system currently has no analogues in the world. Its price tag is far lower than the most basic and inexpensive imported industrial solutions, while it is incomparably advanced in terms of functionality and precision.

DSC05072_1.jpg
 
Do you have a web page?
 
I presume it is REDWave since it is Russian; the lab is in Moscow.
The system is not fundamentally a new idea: places like Woods Hole have been doing something similar for decades."It takes only 10-15 minutes to position the buoys on the surface of the water before diving" may be the kicker....presumably the buoys are moored. that is rarely easy and not always possible. If they are free drifting, then the local currents are an issue. For divers, it certainly needs to be cheaper than it looks!

I am always kind of put off by someone talking about an underwate4r GPS system. It is not GPS underwater, it is acoustic navigation underwater. Even if GPS is used to locate the buoys, that does not make it an underwater GPS system.

"The unique technology of digital broadband hydroacoustic noise-immune communication makes it possible to obtain position accuracy of about one meter, even in difficult conditions with strong signal reflections (this effect in acoustics is called multipath)." This is the right approach, but I suspect is being a bit oversold here.
 
I presume it is REDWave since it is Russian; the lab is in Moscow.
The system is not fundamentally a new idea: places like Woods Hole have been doing something similar for decades."It takes only 10-15 minutes to position the buoys on the surface of the water before diving" may be the kicker....presumably the buoys are moored. that is rarely easy and not always possible. If they are free drifting, then the local currents are an issue. For divers, it certainly needs to be cheaper than it looks!

I am always kind of put off by someone talking about an underwate4r GPS system. It is not GPS underwater, it is acoustic navigation underwater. Even if GPS is used to locate the buoys, that does not make it an underwater GPS system.

"The unique technology of digital broadband hydroacoustic noise-immune communication makes it possible to obtain position accuracy of about one meter, even in difficult conditions with strong signal reflections (this effect in acoustics is called multipath)." This is the right approach, but I suspect is being a bit oversold here.

Thank you! We’re glad that you showed interest in our product.


You are certainly right that this is an underwater acoustic navigation system.
However, at the moment this system is close as possible to the usual GPS from the user's point of view, because:
  • It can determine absolute geographical coordinates,
  • Coordinates are generated directly on the underwater receiver,
  • Simultaneous operation of an unlimited number of receivers in one water area is possible,
  • Navigation receivers in the ROV / AUV version simulate the same NMEA0183 protocol as in conventional GPS / GLONASS modules
Our system is also close to GPS “ideology”: It’s a long base-line navigation system that applies the TDOA method and repeater signals in it are separated by code.

We admit that the term "underwater GPS" should be quoted, but nowadays there is a lot of information about different start-ups trying to develop such a system, so we have to play by the common rules of social media.
Moreover, since G stands for "Global", recently we’ve been testing a more complex system that uses an unlimited number of buoys and theoretically they can cover any area.

Yes, no doubt it's not always convenient to deploy buoys, but as we said before it usually takes only 10-15 minutes. Also, the science of physics is one for everyone and we proceeded from the fact that the main thing is the accuracy and reliability of the system, that's why we use the LBL scheme.

We also developed a simpler and more affordable solution - the acoustic "compass". A system that solves the task of divers homing. It consists of a homing beacon that is a small plastic case with a submersible antenna on the cable and a diving wrist device - a miniature direction-finding antenna.
The wrist device "compass" determines the direction of arrival of the beacon signal as well as the distance to it. The cost of one set is about the cost of a good smartphone.
In this system, it is also possible to work simultaneously an unlimited number of "compasses" on a single drive beacon.
 
Thank you! We’re glad that you showed interest in our product.


You are certainly right that this is an underwater acoustic navigation system.
However, at the moment this system is close as possible to the usual GPS from the user's point of view, because:
  • It can determine absolute geographical coordinates,
  • Coordinates are generated directly on the underwater receiver,
  • Simultaneous operation of an unlimited number of receivers in one water area is possible,
  • Navigation receivers in the ROV / AUV version simulate the same NMEA0183 protocol as in conventional GPS / GLONASS modules
Our system is also close to GPS “ideology”: It’s a long base-line navigation system that applies the TDOA method and repeater signals in it are separated by code.

We admit that the term "underwater GPS" should be quoted, but nowadays there is a lot of information about different start-ups trying to develop such a system, so we have to play by the common rules of social media.
Moreover, since G stands for "Global", recently we’ve been testing a more complex system that uses an unlimited number of buoys and theoretically they can cover any area.

Yes, no doubt it's not always convenient to deploy buoys, but as we said before it usually takes only 10-15 minutes. Also, the science of physics is one for everyone and we proceeded from the fact that the main thing is the accuracy and reliability of the system, that's why we use the LBL scheme.

We also developed a simpler and more affordable solution - the acoustic "compass". A system that solves the task of divers homing. It consists of a homing beacon that is a small plastic case with a submersible antenna on the cable and a diving wrist device - a miniature direction-finding antenna.
The wrist device "compass" determines the direction of arrival of the beacon signal as well as the distance to it. The cost of one set is about the cost of a good smartphone.
In this system, it is also possible to work simultaneously an unlimited number of "compasses" on a single drive beacon.
Can you provide some specific guidance about deployment of the buoys?

Your marketing blurb says 10-15 minutes. But that is useless marketing information. I am sure I can randomly toss 4 buoys off a boat in less than a minute, and they would float away.... I am also sure that this would not work. So I am curious about how to make your system work.

My assumption is that the 4 buoys need to be anchored in such a position as to provide TOTAL line of sight coverage of the complete dive site (walls, caverns, gullies, tubes, spurs are failure points). But I could be wrong. Please help us to understand how best to use your new technology,
 
Can you provide some specific guidance about deployment of the buoys?

Your marketing blurb says 10-15 minutes. But that is useless marketing information. I am sure I can randomly toss 4 buoys off a boat in less than a minute, and they would float away.... I am also sure that this would not work. So I am curious about how to make your system work.

My assumption is that the 4 buoys need to be anchored in such a position as to provide TOTAL line of sight coverage of the complete dive site (walls, caverns, gullies, tubes, spurs are failure points). But I could be wrong. Please help us to understand how best to use your new technology,



Thank you for the right question!


For maximum efficiency, RedBASE buoys must be anchored (buoys have positive buoyancy) with a small float that perceives the weight of the anchor rope. It is best to arrange them in the form of a convex quadrilateral no more than 700 meters between any two of them.

The system maintains adequate accuracy even when receiver is beyond the buoy figure for a distance not exceeding one and a half times the size of the buoy’s rectangle. Within the buoy figure, the maximum positioning accuracy is achieved.

And yes, since the receivers of the system determine the location by the TDOA method, a "direct visibility" between each of the transmitters and the navigation receiver is required for correct operation, by the way, all the same restrictions apply in the case of conventional GPS.

Currently, we’re translating system deployment instructions f into English. Once it’s ready, it will be freely available.
 
Thank you for the right question!


For maximum efficiency, RedBASE buoys must be anchored (buoys have positive buoyancy) with a small float that perceives the weight of the anchor rope. It is best to arrange them in the form of a convex quadrilateral no more than 700 meters between any two of them.

The system maintains adequate accuracy even when receiver is beyond the buoy figure for a distance not exceeding one and a half times the size of the buoy’s rectangle. Within the buoy figure, the maximum positioning accuracy is achieved.

And yes, since the receivers of the system determine the location by the TDOA method, a "direct visibility" between each of the transmitters and the navigation receiver is required for correct operation, by the way, all the same restrictions apply in the case of conventional GPS.

Currently, we’re translating system deployment instructions f into English. Once it’s ready, it will be freely available.
What is the power requirements and operational lifetime of the buoys?
 
What is the price?
 
Finally, someone is taking a concept that has been around for years and making an off-the-shelf version that we can use. That said, I have to comment on a few aspects:

Anchoring a buoy to the bottom in some areas is frowned upon due to delicate benthic habitats. Unattended buoys could thus be removed as marine debris, making for an expensive replacement. Can lost buoys be located remotely?

Depending on the acoustic frequency, the unit could disturb marine mammals in the area. Have you looked in to pre-checking this through an Environmental Assessment or an Environmental Impact Statement process?
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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