The physics is against us: adventures in low-cost marine systems development

Development of marine sensing and sampling systems is fundamentally limited and challenged by the ocean environment, from the physics of light attenuation to the vagaries of long-range acoustic propagation to the fact that salt water is corrosive. This presentation focuses on a series of projects lowering barriers to ubiquitous marine sensing: AUV swarming with one-way travel acoustic techniques, reconstruction of underwater position via single-hydrophone source sensing, production of a new lineless lobster fishing technology, and development of low-cost eDNA samplers to accompany acoustic payloads in understanding marine ecology. These seemingly disparate programs share an objective to reduce the cost of underwater systems by combining fundamental ocean physics with modern electronics and signal processing methods. Physics may be a barrier to low-cost ocean sensors and samplers, but it can also be a tool to see a bit further in the ocean.