Florida Oceanic Engineering Research Consortium

FAU has world class expertise in:

1. LPD/LPI (low-probability of detection/low-probability of intercept) underwater communications
2. Secure covert acoustic waveform design
3. High data rate ultrasound underwater communications (300kbps and above)
4. Robust 3D underwater localization
5. Software-defined reconfigurable underwater platforms
6. Low size, weight and power hardware for sensor signal processing
7. Navigation, kinematics, dynamics and control of surface and underwater systems engineering
8. Sensor data detection, multi-modal fusion, decision making and actuation in resource restricted environments
9. Biologically inspired propulsion and autonomous systems
10. Underwater robotics, supervisory switching control, vision-based target tracking, station keeping
11. Swarms and collaborative underwater and surface systems
12. Digital holography and submersible PIV
13. Deep reinforcement learning for energy efficient autonomous swimmers

Specific projects that FAU may propose are:

1. Underwater localization and navigation based on robust signal angle-of-arrival estimation interference-avoiding networked underwater communications by cognitive channelization and routing
2. Underwater and aerial connected autonomous systems
3. Disruption techniques of adversary underwater communications
4. Geometrically constrained, multi-point monitoring of surface water dynamics
5. Design of forward deployed energy and communications infrastructure
6. Real-time object detection and classification (e.g., marine life, ordinance)
7. Hardware/software co-design for resource-constrained environments
8. Design of self-* systems (e.g., self-stabilizing, self-healing, self-adapting)
9. Underwater imaging under occluded visibility
10. Compressive sensing, theory and application
11. EMF detection, concealment
12. Acoustic and image classification (e.g., marine life, watercraft)
13. Secure and high speed underwater acoustic communication
14. Risk-aware decision making in human-guided unmanned surface vehicle teams
15. Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV) systems for naval architecture inspection and health monitoring
16. Distributed surveillance using swarms (multi vehicle and multi domain) of UUV, USV, and UAVs
17. Underwater acoustic and holographic imaging
18. Marine materials, biofouling, and corrosion

Florida State University

The mission of Florida State University Panama City's Advanced Science Diving Program (ASDP) is to educate and support excellence in underwater research. We develop, review and implement standards for safe and productive scientific diving. We train and educate our students, faculty, staff and outside state and federal agencies, in the most current safe diving practices as put forth by the American Academy of Underwater Sciences (AAUS).

The purpose of the FSU Panama City's ASDP is to ensure that all scientific diving, as outlined, is conducted with the utmost safety and professionalism. We set forth standards for training and certification that will allow a working reciprocity between us and other research facilities around the globe, specifically organizational members of AAUS. FSU Panama City is an active member and supporter of AAUS and complies with all of its policies and procedures. Advancements in ocean research through education in technology allows academic diving at FSU Panama City to thrive.

The Center for Advanced Power Systems (CAPS) is a multidisciplinary research center organized to perform basic and applied research to advance the field of power systems technology. CAPS emphasis is on application to electric utility, defense, and transportation, as well as developing an education program to train the next generation of power systems engineers. The research focuses on electric power systems modeling and simulation, power electronics and machines, control systems, thermal management, cyber-security for power systems, high temperature superconductor characterization and electrical insulation research.

With support from the U.S. Navy, Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the U.S. Department of Energy, CAPS has established a unique test and demonstration facility with one of the largest real-time digital power systems simulators along with 5 MW AC and DC test beds for hardware in the loop simulation. The center is supported by a research team comprised of dedicated and highly skilled researchers, scientists, faculty, engineers, and students, recruited from across the globe, with strong representation from both the academic/research community and industry.

UF Research expertise:

1. Underwater robotics – sensing, actuation, computation, and controls
2. Development of smart materials for bioinspired soft robots; flexibility of propeller based underwater robotics
3. Reinforced learning for autonomous navigation
4. Nearshore sediment transport
5. Modeling and simulation of explosives
6. Imaging capabilities - sensing and sensors
7. Biofouling
8. IoT security validation, protection and enhancement

USF’s Strengths and Potential Applications

• Remote laser diagnostics in an ocean environment and biomimetic sensing. (Physics)
• Secure high-speed underwater acoustic communication, real-time object detection and classification, and acoustic and holographic imaging. (Physics)
• Wide-band THz detectors based on ferrimagnetic materials and GHz detectors based on topological spin textures. (Physics)
• Sensors for underwater detection and classification, based on development of RF sensor technology. (Physics)
• Digital-holography techniques for microscopy and telescopy. (Physics)
• Cryptography and Coding Theory. (Mathematics and Statistics)
• Biologically engineered underwater proposition systems, particle image velocimetry (PIV) and high speed digital holography. (Integrative Biology)
• Novel propulsion mechanisms for improved efficiency. (Integrative Biology)
• Automatic Detection of Language Vagueness in Privacy Policies. (Information)
• US Army Reserve Cyber P3 Program. (Information)
• Porous materials for sensors, batteries, and supercapacitors. (Chemistry)
• Chemical and Biological warfare agent detection and decontamination. (Chemistry)
• Defense related nuclear forensics. (Chemistry)
• Quantum computing. (Mathematics and Statistics)
• Strategic Cyber Intelligence. (Information, Mathematics and Statistics)
• New approaches to marine weather forecasting. (Mathematics and Statistics)
• A Moving Target Defense Approach for Base Station Security in Wireless Sensor Networks. (Mathematics and Statistics)
• Cognitive and autonomous computing applications (CSE) – numerous defense applications in Navy-related operations
• Big-data analytics (CSE) – wide variety of applications in Navy-related operations including intelligence gathering, maintenance of facilities and assets
• Computer Vision (CSE) – very broad applications to image interpretation of digital images and videos gathered in Navy operations, maintenance of facilities, etc.
• Cognitive Robotics (CSE) – potential for deep-sea operations and advanced tactical support
• Deep learning and deep reasoning (CSE) – many applications with the interpretation of intelligence data, etc.
• Wireless biosensor applications (ChBME) – numerous Navy personnel applications
• Corrosion of engineering materials (CEE) – multiple Navy-related projects from the corrosion of underwater structures, to ship corrosion, etc.
• Heterogeneous sensor networks (ME) – the design and networking of sensor clusters has broad applications to many Navy operations
• Systems and methods for computing stability limits of human-in-the-loop adaptive control architectures (ME) – multiple applications in many Navy-related operations involving human decision-making
• Wireless communications and wireless/network security (EE) – broad range of applications to Navy tactical activities and other operations
• Sensor and/or instrument development (Marine Science)
• Glider operations (Marine Science)
• Development and application of in situ acoustic arrays from multiple applications (Marine Science)
• Ocean optics, from satellite remote sensing to in situ observations (Marine Science)
• Genomic, chemical, and biological sensors (Marine Science)
• Strong modeling capabilities (e.g., turbulence) (Marine Science)

FIU

Underwater Research

1. Underwater habitat maintenance and operation
2. Diving activities in support of science, technology testing and mission support
3. Diving testing at Aquarius
4. Autonomous networked surface and aerial sampling platforms
5. Active and passive acoustic technology for assessing animal abundance and identification
6. Distributed networked autonomous systems for efficiently gathering data in deep ocean systems
7. Adaptive sampling for coastal water sensing and monitoring using heterogeneous vehicles
8. Marine-going drone for water quality sensing and monitoring

Sonar, Underwater Communications & Power:

1. Impact of sonar ops on marine mammals, active and passive sonar use in fisheries, and expertise in the ecology of the Bahamas
2. Low frequency and long range underwater communications
3. Tropospheric beyond line of sight communications
4. Miniature ultra-wideband and multiband antennas for universal submarine masts
5. Low probability of detection/Secure communications
6. Broadband RF/millimeter wave U Signal Detection, Identification, Direction Finding, and Tracking
7. Wireless charging/powering of unmanned underwater/surface vehicles
8. Low power electronics
9. Deployable/stowable antennas and communication systems for underwater communications
10. Extremely low-cost and very-long lifetime battery-free wireless sensors for efficient monitoring of: (a) water environmental conditions of vast oceanic areas and (b) human performance underwater
11. Test & Evaluation (T&E) and Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems for underwater platforms
12. Multi-frequency Identification Sonar system
13. Acoustic data processing and sound propagation modeling

Environmental:

1. Ecology of the Bahama Islands and the adjacent ocean
2. Coral reef ecology
3. Ecology, biology and behavior of marine mammals
4. Assessing fisheries potential and population structure
5. Geology/Hydrogeology/Geophysics of the Bahama Islands and their relation to adjacent marine areas

Click on the below logo to check out the engineering technology each institution has to offer to defense and industry partners.