Introducing the SeaTrac X110 transponder beacon and acoustic modem. Built around a robust broadband spread spectrum signalling scheme, this multi-purpose acoustic transponder beacon is capable of responding to position interrogations from X150 beacons while simultaneouly undertaking bi-directional data exchange.
Applications include...
- Remote control and interrogation of sub-sea equipment
- AUV/Diver telemetry links
- Remote depth, attitude and orientation measurement.
Data Modems
In a modem application, beacons are mounted at either end of the required data links and addressable packets of data are exchanged between the Acoustic Communication Stacks using protocols that ensure integrity of data, buffering and reattempting transmission in event of packet loss.
Integrated beacon sensors (such as depth, attitude and supply voltage) may also be remotely queried by the interrogating modem.
Full control over the modem transponder is facilitated through a fully documented serial command set
Position Tracking
When used in a tracking application, up to 14 sub-surface assets to be tracked (including Divers, ROV's, AUV's etc) are fitted with an X110 beacon, and optionally may use the data port to provide periodic acoustic communications with other systems and sensors.
Interrogation is controlled by one X150 mounted on the supervisor vessel/platform, and connected to a PC running the SeaTrac PinPoint display and logging software. All positions are computed by the X150 beacon, so no additional PC hardware is required.
Sensors
Each beacon is fitted with a 9 Degrees-of-Freedom (DOF) Attitude and Heading Reference System, taking data from the onboard MEMS gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetometer to produce pitch, roll and yaw information that is made available to external applications via the communications port.
Additionally, an integrated temperature and pressure sensor allows the beacon to monitor its depth and auto-compute the enviromental velocity-of-sound. This information can be retreived by the surface beacon and used to enhance position fixes in a tracking application.
System Integration
For OEMs, system integrators and developers the serial interfaces, ASCII based command protocol and SDK documentation allow quick integration with existing systems, providing functionality from the Application level (i.e. tracking or bi-directional data-exchange) down to individual protocols within the Acoustic Communication Stack for more specialist requirements.
To support the development and testing process, the SeaTrac Utilities software suite provides tools do monitor signal quality, perform basic acoustic operations (ping, data exchange, range and position) and remotely upgrade the beacons firmware.
