Sensors form the heart of any oceanographic instruments and Sonar. Most of these sensors are imported with huge costs and many a time not supplied for the strategic reasons. Development of sensors such as underwater acoustic transducers, biosensors, buried-object detection systems will help India in bridging the technological gap with the developed countries. Different platforms employ a large variety of sensors, which operate in a wide range of hostile environments and use different measurement protocols. Suitable underwater electronic systems that are cost effective and that could withstand long term operations in the sea need to be developed. Since acoustics is the only efficient mode of communication in underwater, research, development and implementation in key areas of underwater acoustics such as ambient noise measurement, analysis, characterization and modeling, acoustic vector sensor, sea bed classification/characterization, underwater signal processing algorithms for shallow water applications etc, are taken up where in only a very few initiatives have been taken up in our country in the last one decade.

a) Objectives:

1. To establish underwater Electronics Support Facility
2. To develop underwater components
3. To develop marine sensors, underwater acoustic transducers and systems for Oceanographic applications like shallow water sub bottom profilers, sensor technologies and systems to detect and classify buried objects under sea bed and various custom based sensors.
4. To develop deep ocean pressure recorders for tsunami detection and data acquisition & processing unit in the surface buoy.
5. (v) Sea bed classification/characterization using underwater acoustics.
6. Development of acoustic vector sensor and underwater signal processing algorithms for shallow water applications
7. To establish a network of ambient noise measurement stations in shallow waters along the coast of India.
8. Development of a shallow water model for prediction of high frequency ambient noise.
9. To develop Time Reversal Mirror based underwater communication system for long range applications.

b) Participating Institutions:

National Institute of Ocean Technology, Chennai

c) Implementation Plan:

1. Adapt suitable Fuel Cells technology for various underwater applications
2. (ii) Coordination and interaction with ISRO organizations will be madeto have reliable data communication over Indian seas using dedicated Indian satellites to cater all the Oceanographic data, voice and broadcasting applications
3. (iii) Region specific model for ambient noise prediction in other regions will be studied . Already available long period data for our sites will be used for modeling high frequency noise in our regions.
4. (iv) Time reversal mirror based singal processing algorithms that are currently being developed will be tested in the field and TRM based Underwater acoustic communication system for long range applications, will be developed

Wherever required, it is proposed to work in collaboration with academic institutes, universities, research and development organizations, industries and international organizations. A few projects would be executed through inter- institutional programs with IITs, IISc, NIO, NPL , etc .

Infrastructure facilities / Lab requirements

It is proposed to establish SONAR Testing facility, Underwater Precision Engineering Laboratory and Biosensor Labs, Analytical / Microscopy Laboratory.

It is proposed to have a towing tank and a float calibration facility to enable calibration of sensors and floats. A wind tunnel is proposed for calibration of meteorological sensors, storage yard for mechanical components / electronic instruments / accessories.

An open sea acoustic laboratory would act as a fully instrumented measurement station and facility for testing and calibration of underwater acoustic devices. The laboratory would be a floating platform which could be operated up to 100 m depth. The frequency range is 20 kHz to 200 kHz. It would have facility for testing of underwater systems and measurements in the open sea. The facility would also enable experiments for single transmission and reception for carrying out sound propagation studies.

1. Marine sensor systems for Ocean Applications
2. Deep Ocean pressure recorder for Tsunami detection
3. Acoustic sensors and systems for shallow water applications
4. Shallow water model for prediction of high frequency ambient noise.
5. Time reversal mirror based underwater communication system for long range applications.

e) Budget Requirement : 78 crores.

(Rs. In crores)