We recently visited our customer in Switzerland, who purchased the Zima ultra-short baseline navigation system and uWave micromodems from us.
A team of Swiss researchers is working on the project “Distributed 3D Environmental Sensing with a Team of Underwater Robots”, and they need our equipment to get more accurate research results.
At the meeting, our engineer and interviewer, Alexander Dikarev, asked several questions to Anwar Quraishi, a PhD student at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).
Alexander: How did you learn about our company?
Anwar: I learned about the Underwater Communication and Navigation Laboratory from someone who took part in a meeting on the Léman-Baikal project in 2018. I then found similar devices on geo-matching.com under the DiveNET brand. It's much easier for us to buy from a US supplier.
Alexander: What equipment do you use, and what tasks are you solving with it?
Anwar: We plan to use the Microlink/uWave hydroacoustic micromodem to transmit telemetry data from our AUVs (you can read more about the project on the EPFL website). We also plan to use the Commander/Zima ultra-short baseline navigation system to track our AUVs.
Alexander: How did you choose the equipment you needed for your tasks?
Anwar: We talked a lot with engineers from both DiveNET and UCNL. They offered a wide range of options, and after going through them, we settled on the most effective way to accomplish our task in our specific conditions.
Alexander: What tests have you already run, and what results did you get?
Anwar: We have currently run a series of trials with the Microlink/uWave hydroacoustic micromodems on Lake Léman (Lake Geneva) to assess how our specific conditions affect communication quality. It turned out that communication mainly degrades in shallow water: for example, when we tried to establish a link between two modems submerged only 20–30 cm deep, the range did not exceed 20–25 m. That is, of course, an extremely harsh environment for any underwater acoustic system, and during our tests we got much better ranges once the modems were submerged slightly deeper, at 1.5–2 m. We have not yet run tests for the maximum range, which should be up to 1 km, but we are planning to do so.
Alexander: Did you use AUVs/ROVs during your research, or did you bring in divers?
Anwar: At this stage of the project, we are using a “fleet” of small radio-controlled surface boats along with our AUVs.
Alexander: How would you rate our technical support?
Anwar: The technical support is surprisingly good for such a small company. Our project — the part involving the integration of underwater acoustic systems — is moving forward quite quickly, thanks to the people at DiveNET and the Underwater Communication and Navigation Laboratory. They are very responsible, always try to do everything they can, and, in my view, clearly love what they do.
