Wired systems are the most reliable, but they are difficult to maintain and cover a limited area of operation. Wireless internet doesn’t work well in water because of the way water interacts with electromagnetic waves. Scientists have tried light and sound waves, but light and sound are not effective forms of underwater wireless communication — water temperature, salinity, waves and noise can alter signals as they travel between devices.
So Davidde teamed up with a group of engineers led by Chiara Petrioli, a professor at First University and director of Sapienza spin-off WSense, a startup specializing in underwater monitoring and communication systems. Petrioli’s team developed a network of acoustic modems and underwater wireless sensors capable of collecting environmental data and transmitting it to land in real time. “We can now remotely monitor the site at any time,” Davidde said.
Their system relies on artificial intelligence algorithms to continuously change network protocols. As sea conditions change, algorithms modify the path of information from one node to another, enabling signals to travel up to two kilometers. The system can send data at kilobits per second between transmitters a kilometer apart, and tens of megabits per second at shorter distances, Petrioli explained. This bandwidth is sufficient to transmit environmental data such as images and information about water quality, pressure and temperature; metals, chemical and biological elements; and noise, currents, waves and tides collected by sensors fixed on the seafloor.
At Baiae, the underwater internet allows for remote, continuous monitoring of environmental conditions such as pH and carbon dioxide levels, which affect the growth of microorganisms that can destroy artefacts. Additionally, it allows divers to communicate with each other and with colleagues on the surface who can also use the technology to locate them with high precision.
