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- Development of a high-power multilayer PVDF acoustic projector for 40 to 80 kHz bandPublication . Silva, António; Hughes, Ashley; Pozzatti, Daniel; Zabel, Friedrich; Viegas, Rúben; Martins, MarcosA piston type projector using the PVDF piezoelectric polymer was developed for operating in underwater environment, below 100 kHz. For those frequencies PZT piezoelectric ceramic is usually a preferable choice and PVDF is only considered for frequencies above a few hundreds of kHz. This paper will show that efficient underwater acoustic projectors for frequencies below 100 kHz can be implemented regarding an appropriate impedance adapter is being used. The developed project presents a calibrated transmitting voltage response (TVR) of approximately 166, 160 and 175 dB at 40, 50 and 75 kHz, respectively. The PVDF TVR values are compatible with the PZT projectors available on market with the advantage of having a larger bandwidth than most PZT projectors. To the authors knowledge this is the first time that a PVDF projector attain such characteristics. Although theoretically the PVDF projector bandwidth is larger than 40 to 80 kHz, in practice it was observed that only between those frequencies the project presents a stable operation for the transmission of long-term signals.
- Acoustic oceanographic buoy data report Makai Ex 2005Publication . Jesus, S. M.; Silva, A.; Zabel, F.It is now well accepted in the underwater acoustic scientific community that below, say, 1 kHz acoustic propagation models are accurate enough to be able to predict the received acoustic field up to the point of allowing precise and reliable source tracking in range and depth with only limited environmental information. This results from a large number of studies both theoretical and with real data, carried out in the last 20 years. With the event of underwater communications and the necessity to increase the signal bandwidth for allowing higher communication rates, the frequency band of interest was raised to above 10 kHz. In this frequency band the detailed knowledge of the environment - acoustic signal interplay is reduced. The purpose of the MakaiEx sea trial is to acquire data in a complete range of frequencies from 500 Hz up to 50 kHz, for a variety of applications ranging from high-frequency tomography, coherent SISO and MIMO applications, vector - sensor, active and passive sonar, etc...The MakaiEx sea trial, that took place off Kauai I. from 15 September - 2 October, involved a large number of teams both from government and international laboratories, universities and private companies, from various countries. Each team focused on its specific set of objectives in relation with its equipment or scientific interest. The team from the University of Algarve (UALg) focused on the data acquired by their receiving Acoustic Oceanographic Buoy - version 2 (AOB2) during six deployments in the period 15 - 27 September. This report describes the AOB2 data set as well as all the related environmental and geometrical data relative to the AOB2 deployments. The material described herein represents a valuable data set for supporting the research objectives of projects NUACE1, namely to fulfill NUACE’s task 3 and 4 and RADAR2, namely its tasks 2 and 3 devoted to the developement and testing of a field of sonobuoys.
- Why do winners keep winning? Androgen mediation of winner but not loser effects in cichlid fishPublication . Oliveira, R. F.; Silva, A.; Canario, Adelino V. M.Animal conflicts are influenced by social experience such that a previous winning experience increases the probability of winning the next agonistic interaction, whereas a previous losing experience has the opposite effect. Since androgens respond to social interactions, increasing in winners and decreasing in losers, we hypothesized that socially induced transient changes in androgen levels could be a causal mediator of winner/loser effects. To test this hypothesis, we staged fights between dyads of size-matched males of the Mozambique tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus). After the first contest, winners were treated with the antiandrogen cyproterone acetate and losers were supplemented with 11-ketotestosterone. Two hours after the end of the first fight, two contests were staged simultaneously between the winner of the first fight and a naive male and between the loser of first fight and another naive male. The majority (88%) of control winners also won the second interaction, whereas the majority of control losers (87%) lost their second fight, thus confirming the presence of winner/loser effects in this species. As predicted, the success of anti-androgen-treated winners in the second fight decreased significantly to chance levels (44%), but the success of androgenized losers (19%) did not show a significant increase. In summary, the treatment with anti-androgen blocks the winner effect, whereas androgen administration fails to reverse the loser effect, suggesting an involvement of androgens on the winner but not on the loser effect.
- The TV-APM interface: a web service for collaborative modelingPublication . Rodríguez, O. C.; Silva, A.; Zabel, F.; Jesus, S. M.Current development of Internet access, together with available zero-cost Open Source applications (like, for instance, PHP, Python, etc.) can be integrated in order to minimize the constrains induced by the geographical separation of international centers, which collaborate in a given project. The advantage of such approach lies in the sharing of common analysis methods, without particular constrains to specific directions of analysis. The discussion presented in this paper describes the Time Variable Acoustic Propagation Model (TV-APM) web interface, which was created as a collaborative service of acoustic modeling for the participants of the PHITOM and UAN projects. This paper describes the general architecture of the interface, its current shortcomings and advantages, and presents a set of modeling results for short range acoustic propagation, which accounts for source–array and sea surface motion.
- Linking acoustic communications and network performance. Integration and experimentation of an underwater acoustic networkPublication . Caiti, A.; Grythe, K.; Hovem, J. M.; Jesus, S. M.; Lie, A.; Munafò, Andrea; Reinen, Tor Arne; Silva, A.; Zabel, F.Underwater acoustic networks (UANs) are an emerging technology for a number of oceanic applications, ranging from oceanographic data collection to surveillance applications. However, their reliable usage in the field is still an open research problem, due to the challenges posed by the oceanic environment. The UAN project, a European-Union-funded initiative, moved along these lines, and it was one of the first cases of successful deployment of a mobile underwater sensor network integrated within a wide-area network, which included above water and underwater sensors. This contribution, together with a description of the underwater network, aims at evaluating the communication performance, and correlating the variation of the acoustic channel to the behavior of the entire network stack. Results are given based on the data collected during the UAN11 (May 2011, Trondheim Fjord area, Norway) sea trial. During the experimental activities, the network was in operation for five continuous days and was composed of up to four Fixed NOdes (FNOs), two autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), and one mobile node mounted on the supporting research vessel. Results from the experimentation at sea are reported in terms of channel impulse response (CIR) and signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) as measured by the acoustic modems during the sea tests. The performance of the upper network levels is measured in terms of round trip time (RTT) and probability of packet loss (PL). The analysis shows how the communication performance was dominated by variations in signal-to-noise ratio, and how this impacted the behavior of the whole network. Qualitative explanation of communication performance variations can be accounted, at least in the UAN11 experiment, by standard computation of the CIR and transmission loss estimate.
- Unmanned localization of sperm whales in realistic scenariosPublication . Caro, P.; Silva, A.In this paper an unmanned sperm whale localization technique is presented. It focuses on the localization of sperm whales using a two-hydrophone array passive localization system. It is based on the beamforming technique and on the time delay between the direct and surface reflected wavefronts. The proposed method is based on that presented by E. K. Skarsoulis [1] and it aims to develop a low computational complexity signal processing system, which can operate autonomously in remote buoys with power and computational limitations. This study consists on the analysis of the improvements provided by using beamforming theory on the method proposed in [1]. The eqnipment used mainly composed of two hydrophone arrays deployed near the surface. It was found that the accuracy of this methodology depends on the array's location and can be improved by increasing the depth and the separation between the arrays and/or decreasing the angle formed by the line which crosses through the arrays with respect to the horizontal plane. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated through simulations using a real sperm whale signal in deep water, in presence of low and high SNR. The enhancements are proven in the extraction of the direct and surface-reflection arrival times as well as the arrival angle for each path under realistic conditions.
- TRA - Transmit Receive Array (project plan version 2)Publication . Zabel, F.; Martins, C.; Jesus, S. M.; Silva, A.This report describes an update to the project plan for the development of a Transmit Receive Array (TRA). This system is under development for the Underwater Acoustic Barriers (UAB) project which aims at studying, developing and testing in the field the concept of building an underwater acoustic barrier for detecting intruders in a given area.
- Underwater communications using virtual time reversal in a variable geometry channelPublication . Silva, A.; Jesus, S. M.Field experiments using Time-Reversal Mirror( TRM) techniques have shown that the underwater acoustic channel presents a longer stability than it was previously anticipated. Applying such techniques to underwater communications requires that, either the emitted signals are previously ltered by time-reversed replicas of the channel impulse response or that a probe-signal should be transmitted ahead of the data-signal for post channel ltering. In the former case, the time-reversed ltered message is expected to be undone by the actual acoustic channel between the array and the receiver, while in the later, the undoing of the multipath is performed electronically inside the computer and is therefore termed as virtual Time Reversal Mirror(vTRM). The main issues being addressed in recent literature deal with channel stability, focus width and the required array aperture for obtaining reasonable temporal and/or spatial focusing. This paper focus essentially in two practical aspects, generally not addressed: one is to demonstrate the potential application of the vTRM approach to undo the severe intersymbol interference in a real variable geometry channel scenario and, the other, is the importance of optimization of the probe-signal time window length in a real application.
- The acoustic oceanographic buoy. A light acoustic data acquisition systemPublication . Soares, C.; Zabel, F.; Martins, C.; Silva, A.; Jesus, S. M.The Acoustic Oceanographic Buoy (AOB) is a light acoustic receiving device that incorporates acoustic and non-acoustic signals received in various channels along a vertical line array that provide oceanographic and environment measurements all of which are uniquely GPS time referenced. The physical characteristics of the AOB, in terms of size, weight and autonomy, will tend to those of a standard sonobuoy with, however, the capabilities: of local data storage, dedicated signal-processing, GPS self localizing, real-time monitoring and online data transmission.
- Submarine cables as precursors of persistent systems for large scale oceans monitoring and autonomous underwater vehicles operationPublication . Tieppo, Marcos; Pereira, Eduardo; Garcia, Laura Gonzalez; Rolim, Margarida; Castanho, Emanuel; Matos, Anibal; Silva, António; Ferreira, Bruno; Pascoal, Maria; Almeida, Eduardo; Costa, Filipe; Zabel, Fred; Faria, Joao; Azevedo, Jose; Alves, Jose; Moutinho, Jose; Goncalves, Luis; Martins, Marcos; Cruz, Nuno; Abreu, Nuno; Silva, Pedro; Viegas, Rúben; Jesus, Sergio; Chen, Tania; Miranda, Tiago; Papalia, Alan; Hart, Douglas; Leonard, John; Haji, Maha; de Weck, Olivier; Godart, Peter; Lermusiaux, PierreLong-term and reliable marine ecosystems monitoring is essential to address current environmental issues, including climate change and biodiversity threats. The existing oceans monitoring systems show clear data gaps, particularly when considering characteristics such as depth coverage or measured variables in deep and open seas. Over the last decades, the number of fixed and mobile platforms for in situ ocean data acquisition has increased significantly, covering all oceans' regions. However, these are largely dependent on satellite communications for data transmission, as well as on research cruises or opportunistic ship surveys, generally presenting a lag between data acquisition and availability. In this context, the creation of a widely distributed network of SMART cables (Science Monitoring And Reliable Telecommunications) - sensors attached to submarine telecommunication cables - appears as a promising solution to fill in the current ocean data gaps and ensure unprecedented oceans health continuous monitoring. The K2D (Knowledge and Data from the Deep to Space) project proposes the development of a persistent oceans monitoring network based on the use of telecommunications cables and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs). The approach proposed includes several modules for navigation, communication and energy management, that enable the cost-effective gathering of extensive oceans data. These include physical, chemical, and biological variables, both registered with bottom fixed stations and AUVs operating in the water column. The data that can be gathered have multiple potential applications, including oceans health continuous monitoring and the enhancement of existing ocean models. The latter, in combination with geoinformatics and Artificial Intelligence, can create a continuum from the deep sea to near space, by integrating underwater remote sensing and satellite information to describe Earth systems in a holistic manner.