Wireless Teleoperation of an Underwater Robot using Li-Fi

Abstract

Teleoperation of unmanned underwater vehicles is most commonly facilitated through the use of expensive shielded ethernet cables or high-speed fibre optic cables that are also quite fragile. Wireless underwater communication has thus far has been dominated by bulky and expensive acoustic modems. Is it possible to exploit recent advances in visible light communication technology including Li-Fi as a replacement for these technologies? Here we describe a small scale Li-Fi system that can be used to provide short-range tele-operational control of an underwater vehicle. Such control can either be provided from a diver operating in close proximity of the robot or via a communications relay from surface-based support.