GIB buoys: an interface between space and depths of the oceans

Abstract

Unmanned underwater vehicles having no umbilical can be successfully used for defense and commercial applications only if answers are found to the two most critical technical challenges: accurate positioning, and communications at a reasonable cost. The author states that, as new OEM GPS receivers achieve metric accuracy, LEO satellites will soon offer real-time two-way data communications anywhere over the oceans. DSP chips offer tremendous signal processing power. The question that raises is how those new technologies will be assembled together to make practical, operational and efficient underwater positioning and guidance systems. GIB (GPS intelligent buoys) involve groups of buoys that calculate their own position from the GPS and then send acoustic signals to the underwater vehicle as a basis for calculation of its position.