A dynamically adaptable real time data acquisition and display system

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL), sponsored by the Oceanographer of the Navy and the Commander of the Submarine Development Squadron Twelve, has produced a real time data acquisition and display system to allow U.S. submarines to measure the in-situ ocean environment during standard patrol operations. The system is composed of a dynamically adaptable architecture that allows for a variety oceanographic data sensor sources in a "plug and play" fashion. This adaptability is carried throughout the system in terms of configuration management, data acquisition, calibration, processing and display of the available data. Faulted sensor packages can be replaced seamlessly, and previously unknown sensor types can be added, all with no software impact. At the heart of this architecture is the "Data Dictionary", a dynamically configurable data base that describes all aspects of the sensor data necessary to carry out the system objectives.