Experimental Study on Ultrasonic Signal Transmission Within the Water-filled Pipes Yinghui Li, Stephen O Harrold and L F Yeung Department of Electronic Engineering City University of Hong Kong Abstract: In this paper, we present the results of system design and experiments carried out in a water tank and water-filled pipes using wireless ultrasonic communication methods. The experimental study by measurement and analysis of multipath ultrasonic transmission within water-filled pipes and its effect on the transmission link are investigated. Pulsed carrier signals of short duration are used to estimate the characteristics of the channels and the results have been used to improve the performance of the ultrasonic transmission link. The link is to be used to control and talk with an ROV named Pipe Rover. The studies show that the transmission in the pipes is, as expected, much more reverberant than in the open water. A digital link has been tested at a bit rate of 600. baud at the transmission level using FSK ‘modulation. Introduction Underwater ultrasonic communication has received much attention in research over the past two decades, and various kinds of systems have been developed for oceanic applications. Much effort has been placed on combating the multipath problems caused by the reverberation of the floor and surface in shallow water. These subjects are covered in several review papers [1] [2] [3], ete. Pipe Rover, an underwater robot for the inspection of the condition within water-filled pipes, is under development at City University of Hong Kong. Obviously. a tethering cable for control and communication can be detrimental to the mission of the Rover. The question, can we use ultrasonic wireless communication in this confined water environment as a mean of transferring data to and from the Rover, needs to be answered. This question, has prompted some modeling research [4] [5]. These studies have shown 0-8186-8025-3/97 $10.00 © 1997 IEEE 93 that, as expected, transmission in the pipes was much ‘more reverberant than in the open water. In a confined water space, such as in the shallow water of an ocean and in large diameter pipes, the signal transmission of the ultrasonic waves causes distortion in amplitude and phase of the received signals due to interference by the reflected waves from the boundary of the water. As a general principle, energy decreases due 10 absorption, attenuation, and mismatch of the electro- ‘mechanical components, but in pipes the fields are further ‘complicated by these multipaths. The strength of the fields may be greater in the far distance than near to the source, or stronger off axis than ‘on. This multipath dispersion could be completely characterised by an appropriate model. However, the real boundary conditions and parameters may differ from the theoretical ones, and real multipath propagation causes a spread of transmitted pulse which results in a degradation Of the received signals which is greater than that estimated from the model. An experimental study on multipath ultrasonic transmission within water-filled pipe is needed, ‘The signal profile with delayed parameters was analysed for carrier bursts of different frequencies, and signal analysis is presented in time domain and frequency domain. The desired input signals with different shapes and frequencies were applied to the transmitter and the received responses digitised and transferred 10 a host computer for processing. ‘Since digital modulation techniques are crucial in the data transmission scheme, this paper presents a frequency shift keying (FSK) system. In the realisation of the system, oncoherent detection is preferred because of its simpler implementation. Noncoherent FSK is commonly used in applications employing low data rates because of its robust properties, since its threshold is usually fixed at zero and independent of the change of the carrier amplitude. The Mcary PSK receiver is generally used to get a higher data rate than the binary PSK. For the noncoherent method, the major consideration is to minimise the effects of the intersymbol interference (ISI) by insertion of a guard time.sjauueyg adig po} Janiaoes sin 2M UUM waIsfs SuoHeD|UNWWOD Ja}eMLapUN Jo WeIBEIG xOOIE | “B14 4a fe somauy be auyorg somig l¢——| sovenpon le peng sows j t t <> sensig le—| riaueg 94‘The performance of the transmission was investigated in terms of the data rate, bit error and structural parameters ‘The —reverberant and multipath transmission characteristics, together with high attenuation at high acoustic frequencies, mean that we are facing major dificuties in the design of the system with the acoustic ‘water-filled pipes (AWFP) communications channels. Some preliminary simulation and experimental results hhave been shown in {4} {5] by the authors and in (6] and {71 by other research group members 2. System Design of Ultrasonic Signal ‘Transmission ‘The communication system research work will aid in the pipe rover project and will be tested on an ROV at a real application site. The ultrasonic transducers at resonant frequency IMHz. are used as the ultrasonic wave exciting sources and the ultrasonic sensors. To get an efficient ultrasonic excitation through the long pipes, a high voltage driver applied to a capacitive load is needed. A push-pull driver was adopted as the appropriate final stage at the transmitter. The pre-amplifier has a good sensitivity (equivalent input noise 5uVpy ) and adequate bandwidth (500Hz-2MHz, 34B) for the detection of weak ultrasonic signals. The band-pass filter is employed to provide noise reduction. The noise and interference signals are then forwarded to PLL circuits which discriminate the FSK hopping frequencies related to the binary data. A bit synchroniser PLL extracts the sync signal and restores the data bytes from the bit stream, The communication system concerned is showed as a block diagram in Fig. 1. 3. Experiments on Communication Channel ‘The Experimental set-up is intended to give a flexible configuration in data acquisition and settings of transmission link, With positional and angular scanning of transducer in a water tank in the laboratory, the acoustic twansmission link was maintained and tested for pipes of different diameters. ‘The relatively high frequency of IMHz is used to model the real system because the test pipe system uses pipes Y% actual size of pipes that the Rovers will inspect. The PVC es are immersed in a water tank, with two open ends, and consist of straight pipe sections and 45° sections of various lengths. All the scanning, driving and sensing, and data acquisition are controlled by a host computer and later by the core microprocessors. ‘The experiments were conducted mainly in a water tank in the laboratory, with dimensions of 4.1m(L)x2.3m(W) x1.2m(D), and with water-filled pipes cf various lengths from I to 4 meters. Depending upon the 95 pipe dimensions and the frequencies of the ultrasoni ‘waves, pipes of different diameters and shapes have been tested. The responses of the transducer for different exciting signals were first tested in open water. Fig. 2 shows the input to the ultrasonic transmitting transducer and Fig. 3 the signal at the receiver transducer. The input signal is just one whole cycle of sine wave, Note, the “ring” of the receiver is shown in Fig. 3 Fig. 2 Exciting burst at transmitter, one-cycle sine wave Fig. 3 Response, open water, one cycle exciting wave signal. ig. 4 Exciting signal, four cycles ‘The Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 are the results of the same set-up with four cycles of exciting signal at source.Fig. 5 Response, open water, four cycles of exciting signal To understand the multipath propagation of ultrasonic waves, consider the test set-up shown in Fig. 6. The driving burst of signal is @ series of bursts which consists of four-cycle sine waves. Assume the start of burst is at time zero, then the multipath received signal is recorded in Fiz. 7 which accounts forthe two diserete paths illustrated in Fig. 6. The large signal at 1610, and the small signal at 1630uS represent the direct path and indirect path respectively Water Tank Transmitter Receiver Fig. 7 Reflected signal by floor of water tank A test of ultrasonic signal transmission in water-filled pipes was also conducted using different pipes of various lengths. Fig. 8 and Fig. 9 show results in a 4-meter-long. pipe. It is clear that multipath propagation in the pipe is ‘much more serious than in the case shown in Fig. 7. The later arrivals can be stronger than the first arrival. The phase and amplitude vary with unpredictable shapes. Fig 10 and Fig. 11 are magnified views of the Fig. 8 and Fig. 9 showing the first signal arrivals, Fig. 8 The multipath response of AWFP channels( with one-cycle sine-wave burst excitation) Fig. 9 The multipath response of AWFP channels (with four-cycle sine-wave burst excitation). Fig. 10 The first signal arrivals of multipath propagation with one-cycle of exciting burst in Fig. 8, pipe length 4m. Fig. 11. The first signal arrivals of multipath propagation with four-cycle sine wave exciting burst in Fig. 9, pipe length 4mIn the water-filled pipes, the multipath transmission varies with the axial distance and lateral position. Fig. 12 to Fig. 19 show the received signals along the axis of a 28.6 mm diameter pipe. The exciting signal is a ten-cycles sine wave and the transmitter and receiver are positioned along the pipe axis. Two major signals along different paths were observed. The first is due to the direct path and the second is the once reflected response. The pipe diameter is 28.6 mm. As the distance increases, the reflected path signal moves closer towards the signal of the direct path. The strength of the later gets more and more strong as the distance from the source increases. From the signals shown in Fig. 7 , we know thatthe reflected signals are normally smaller than the main signals. In pipes, however, the side path signal may be stronger than the direct path as shown in Fig. 18 and Fig. 19. Moreover, the signals are very sensitive to the lateral position and direction change of the transducers. These tests confirm that the fields in a pipe are highly complex, and explain why low rate FSK is proposed for the data link. Fig. 12 Signal received at distance 1.3m from transmitter in the pipe Fig. 13 Signal received at distance 1.9m from transmitter in the pipe Wi Fig. 14 Signal received at distance 2.0m from transmitter in the pipe H oo . 15 Signal received at distance 2.3m from transmitter in the pipe Fig. 16 Signal received at distance 3.0m from transmitter in the pipe Fig. 17 Signal received at distance 3.1m from transmitter in the pipehy jdt yee Fig. 18 Signal received at distance 3.5m from transmitter in the pipe Fig. 19 Signal received at distance 3.1m from transmitter in the pipe To combat the multipath propagation, which generates the spread of the receiving signal and ISI, equalization techniques for extracting desired source information from interference signals are powerful tools. Some particular equalizers can be used in ultrasonic signal processing in the pipe transmission channels. A real-time DSP system is ‘under development and will be implemented soon. Recently, research. underwater acoustic communications has been shifted to coherent methods [8] [9] in an effort to improve the bandwidth efficiency. The coherent methods are preferred for higher data rate in specific applications, though their performance and implementation complexity are problems yet to be solved. 4. Conclusion A communication system for the AWFP channel has been designed and tested using wireless ultrasonic methods. With a deep understanding of the ultrasonic transmission in water-filled pipes, the experiments of an FSK-based transmission link were implemenied at a. low rate, ‘The channel response in the pipes is that of a ‘multipath characteristic, and the multipath problem is ‘more serious in long pipes. In addition to the above studies, techniques for combating multipath propagation 10 improve the system performance will be investigated so that a high-data-rate link can be maintained. Through this link not only the commands but the live pictures can be 98 (ransmitted between the ROV and the base station with the aid of data compression techniques. References U1] A. B. Baggeroer, "Acoustic Telemetry- An Overview", IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, Vol. 9, No. 4, pp. 229-235, October 1984, [2] Aziaul H. Quazi and William L. Konrad, “Underwater Acoustic Communications", [EEE Communications ‘Magazine, March 1982, pp.24-30. M, Stojanovic, “Recent Advances in High-Speed Underwater Acoustic communications”, IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, Vol. 21, No. 2, pp.125-136, April 1996, [4] Yinghui Li, $ O Harrold, and LF Yeung, “Model based Simulation for Ultrasonic Communication Channel Inside Pipeline”, The Proceeding of Seventh Annual International Conference on Signal Processing Application and Technology(ICSPAT'96), pp.1163- 1167, October 1996, Boston, USA. [5] Yinghui Li, $ O Harrold, and L F Yeung, “Simulation of the Data Transmission for an ROV”, Proceeding of the IEEE Intemational Conference on Industrial Technology(ICIT'96)", pp.508-512, December 1996, ‘Shanghai, China. [6] D. Z. Liao, S. ©. Harrold and L. F. Yeung, “An GI Underwater Acoustic Data Link Autonomous Underwater Vehicles", IEEE SICSPC'95, pp.23-28, July 1995. (7) 8. 0. Harrold, D Z Liao and L F Yeung, “Ultrasonic Data Communication Along Large Diameter Water- Filled Pipes”, Proceeding of the IEEE 2" Conference On Mechatronics and Machine Vision In Practice, Hong Kong, Sept. 1995, pp.239-244, {8] M. Stojanovic, J. A. Catipovic, and J. G. Proakis, “* Phase-Coherent Digital Communications for Underwater Acoustic Channels”, IEEE Jounal of Oceanic Engineering, vol. 19, n0. 1, Jan. 1994, pp.100- UL M. Stojanovic, “Recent Advances in High-Speed Underwater Acoustic communications", /EEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, Vol. 21, No. 2, pp-125-136, ‘April 1996, 0)