High-speed biomimetic underwater acoustic communication technology inspired by dolphin clicks

Biomimetic underwater acoustic communication (BUAC) is a key technology for underwater data transmission, yet existing BUAC techniques are hindered by low data rates and inadequate degree of mimic (DoM). Inspired by the wideband click trains of dolphins, this paper proposes a high-speed BUAC scheme that employs dolphin clicks as information carriers. Information is embedded by jointly modulating the amplitude and phase of these clicks. The effects of Doppler shift and inter-symbol interference are effectively mitigated through the cascaded application of interleaving, Gray coding, resampling, and channel equalization. Furthermore, handshake-free adaptive modulation is implemented via the frame header, ultimately achieving high-speed and reliable BUAC. Shallow-water sea trial results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves a communication performance of 22.54 kbps*km with a bit error rate of only 0.0019, which is twice the upper bound of existing techniques. Moreover, the technique can flexibly switch its signal carrier according to local biological signals, further enhancing DoM and providing a feasible solution for high-speed BUAC among underwater equipment.