FPGA-Based Acoustic Detection and Ranging System for Underwater Applications

Underwater environments are known for their challenging and variable communication channels, where factors such as multipath propagation, Doppler shifts, and noise severely affect signal integrity. Underwater acoustic sensing is essential for marine technologies, including underwater navigation, surveillance, and environmental monitoring. This paper presents the design and implementation of an FPGA-based acoustic detection and ranging (ADAR) system specifically tailored for underwater applications. The proposed system utilizes FPGA hardware to perform real-time processing of acoustic signals for accurate distance measurements using the time-of-flight (ToF) principle. A hydrophone is used to capture echo from the target, and the FPGA processes these signals to compute the travel time of the acoustic pulse. Using the FPGA's parallel processing capabilities, the system's ability to handle multiple input signals simultaneously enables high-speed data acquisition and analysis critical for underwater applications where real-time performance and accuracy are paramount. Experimental results demonstrate the system's effectiveness in underwater environments, achieving high precision in distance measurement even in challenging conditions such as variable water salinity and temperature. The FPGA-based design offers significant scalability, robustness, and adaptability advantages. It is an ideal solution for dynamic underwater sensing scenarios in marine robotics, underwater weapon control, surveillance, sub-marine communications, and oceanographic research.