Wireless Local Area Network Link Sharing in Unmanned Surface Vehicle Control Scenarios

Area of Science:

• Robotics and Automation
• Wireless Communication Systems
• Marine Engineering

Background:

• Unmanned vehicles, particularly unmanned surface vehicles (USVs), are increasingly prevalent across various sectors.
• Effective communication solutions are critical for USV operation, especially with diverse and evolving payloads.
• Previous work established wireless local area network (WLAN) as suitable for USV control loop communication, noting excess capacity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To verify if WLAN can simultaneously handle time-sensitive USV control loop and high-throughput payload data.
• To explore the potential advantages of integrated communication for USV construction and operation.
• To address the challenge of payload traffic impacting control communication quality.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of traffic parameters for common USV payloads.
• Design and implementation of a test system to evaluate shared WLAN link performance.
• Conducting laboratory experiments and real-world field trials with USVs.
• Development and testing of a method using Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) hardware for reliable link sharing.

Main Results:

• Initial results showed payload traffic significantly impacts the quality of control communication.
• The proposed method using COTS hardware demonstrated reliable link sharing in changing conditions.
• Laboratory and field experiments confirmed the effectiveness of the developed communication solution.

Conclusions:

• WLAN-based communication is viable for simultaneous control and high-throughput payload data on USVs.
• The proposed COTS hardware solution enables reliable shared-link operation for USVs in real-world scenarios.
• Integrating communication systems offers significant benefits for USV development and operational efficiency.