Embedded Sensors with Low Power Telemetry for Towed Arrays Navy SBIR FY2012.1 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2012.1 Topic No.: N121-048 Topic Title: Embedded Sensors with Low Power Telemetry for Towed Arrays Proposal No.: N121-048-0964 Firm: SeaLandAire Technologies, Inc. 1510 Springport Rd Suite C Jackson, Michigan 49202 Contact: Jerry Cole Phone: (517) 784-8340 Web Site: www.sealandaire.com Abstract: Naval operations with towed arrays have identified areas for improvements including performance, power consumption and reliability. The SeaLandAire Technologies, Inc. / L-3 Chesapeake Sciences Corporation team will address these concerns by incorporating a cost effective, high performance, small hydrophone paired with a low power, volumetrically efficient telemetry electronics. The combination of SeaLandAire / L-3 technologies will provide the Navy a path to resolve the Thin Line Towed Array issues. The technical issues and solution approaches are:  Improve Performance - Increase the number of hydrophones/channels per unit length by using a smaller form factor for the sensor / telemetry package  Reduce Power Consumption - Using lower power telemetry electronics developed under SBIR funding  Improve Reliability - Reduce the wire bending stress by routing wires closer to the array centerline and reconfiguring the hydrophone/telemetry configuration for graceful degradation in performance if wire failure were to occur This proposal discusses the aspects of the technical issues that can be mitigated, the available technology that can be applied to the issues and the relative merits of four candidate solutions. Benefits: SeaLandAire envisions the small size, low power and low-cost hydrophone and telemetry system having many applications. The primary application, after completion of Phase III development, is integration into the TB-23 and/or TB-29A thin line towed array systems. The anticipated requirement for the hydrophone in the TB-29A program could be as high as 50,000 to 100,000 hydrophones per year and 10,000 to 20,000 telemetry systems. In addition to this market, the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) has a growing need for towed arrays. This particular design is smaller in size and lower in power than other designs making it ideal for the AUV market. The low cost hydrophone developed in this program could also have direct application to other surface and subsurface towed array systems for government research groups and for companies in the private sector involved in offshore oil exploration, geologic survey, oceanographic and hydrographic study, and for research and survey of marine mammals. The low power telemetry system can be marketed in the intrusion detection and border patrol security fields. This system has the advantage of being more covert than the wireless low power systems being deployed (no RF energy transmitted). The market area is more applicable to access denial in bounded areas and installations rather than wide area surveillance. This marketing of this technology will be focused on three groups: Military Government agencies Industry All of these groups will use the technology in different applications but all being driven by the need for a low cost, low power, secure telemetry system. There is also significant interested in the underwater community for smaller, lighter weight sensors that can be deployed as stand alone sensor systems or combined in arrays for enhanced performance. The low cost hydrophone is a good candidate for bottom mounted "trip wire" sensor systems and planar array sensor suites at shallow and moderate depths. SeaLandAire will participate in the Transition Assistance Program (TAP) that assist in the commercialization of a product and provides points of contacts to those in the interested communities. SeaLandAire has participated in this program in the past and have found it to be worthwhile in informing the broader Navy community and prime contractor of the benefits of the product. Return