Comments: download file (cintal_rep)
Ref.: SiPLAB Report 03/05, FCT, University of Algarve,2005.
Abstract: In the framework of the ATOMS project, a project
devoted to study uppwelling processes off the S. Vicente Cape,
Portugal, by oceanographic and acoustic means, it was requested to
adapt an existent underwater acoustic acquisition system named Ultra
Light Vertical Array (ULVA) to fulfil the project requirements. The
ULVA system was a vertical instrumented with up to 16 hydrophones and
various non-acoustic sensors (thermistors, tiltmeters and pressure
gauges). The ULVA system was used during the INTIFANTE project sea
trial, where the acquired data were transmitted through a radio link to
a remote PC station located in a vessel for storage, monitoring and
online processing. In order to overcome data loses due to radio link
fails, identified during the INTIFANTE sea trial, and improve the
mobility of the vessel where the PC station is located, a must for the
ATOMS project, it was decided to transform the ULVA system into an
autonomous acquisition system with local storage facilities, lower
power consumption, capability of on line remote quality control of the
acquired data and positioning information. The first version of this
new system, named Ultra Light Vertical Array/Remote Data Acquisition
System (ULVA/RDAS), was described in the report. During the sea
trial MREA'04 it was found that an auxiliary UHF radio link used to
send some commands to the ULVA, like switch on/off the power or switch
on/off the array electronics, remains a source of problems in the
ULVA/RDAS. Thus, it was decided to remove the UHF link from the system,
emulating its facilities by new developed hardware. In this new version
(second) of the ULVA/RDAS system, it was also introduced a new
monitoring software, in order to improve its robustness and share a
common user interface with other SiPLAB acquisition systems. This
report describes the actual ULVA/RDAS system (version 2) and is
intended as a system reference and user guide.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT: this work was partially supported by project ATOMS
(POCTI/P/MAR/15296/1999), funded by FCT, Portugal.