Sentinus Research and Development

Wallace High School

In Conjunction With

THALES

Our group is from the Wallace High School Lisburn. Our school has been involved with the Sentinus project for a number of years,and have worked with Thales on a previous occasion, which involved designing a means of testing new missile systems. This years team of 4 is:

Sophie : Team Leader

Chris : Tester

Studies:

Studies:

Maths Physics Moving Image Arts Technology

Maths Further Maths Physics History

Sector/s of interest: Product Design

Sector/s of interest: Mechanical engineering and Finance

Tim : Architect

Adam : Software Engineer

Studies:

Studies:

Maths Physics MIA Technology

ICT Electronics Music Technology

Sector/s of interest: Mechanical engineering

Sector/s of interest: Software engineering and Electrical engineering

The Thales Group is a French company, which specialises in the defence, security, space, aerospace and ground transportation markets. It now has offices and branches in 35 locations across the UK, employing around 8000 people. Their first UK operation was set up back in the early 1970s, and its largest expansion was the takeover of the Racal Group, once Britain's third largest electronics firm, in 2000, giving Thales access to the lucrative defence and armaments markets in the UK. The task we have been given applies to the defence sector of this industry, which will be explained later in the report.

Introduction
The customer has specified that we create a program that can be used as a backup system for radio communications in a submarine, should the primary system fail or be intercepted. As sound travels well under water, we decided that this would be a good way to transmit our data. The idea is that the data (e.g. text) can be transmitted to its destination quickly, and in such a way that it cannot be interpreted quickly or easily by any party wishing to intercept the communication. For this reason, it was specified that we would use the ASCII encoding scheme. 1s would be transmitted as high frequency tones, and 0s as low frequency tones. We were to build and encode the receiver, and due to time constraints, Thales was to build the receiver. Our transmitter was to put out audible but very low frequency sounds so as it would not be clear to an outside party what was happening.

Procedure
We analysed all the data we had collected. We then looked at how we would be able to implement this and achieve the task set by Thales. We looked at a couple of programming languages these had benefits and negatives these are:

Android
But: It is very time consuming Steep learning curve Feature Rich Nice aesthetics

Python
Fairly Simple Has all the features we require But: Can lack some functionality Complex installation

Arduino
But: Is relatively expensive Will have to be transported unlike software Open source programming platform Easy to learn programming language Feature rich It is hardware unlike the other options above Easy to debug/test Does not need a computer to function

How we started
Firstly we constructed a hierarchy chart the stages show from user input to sending the data to the receiver
.

Transmit

Framing

Convert ASCII (Encoding)

Character Input

USER

Below shows the ASCII Binary for the letter A

We were initially going to use just 2 tones (4kHz & 10kHz)

Now we are making a program that changes the frequency of a single tone up 200Hz to go High at 1.2kHz and down 200Hz to go Low at 0.8kHz from a carrier signal of 1kHz. This incorporates FSK into our project.

After data is processed

The carrier signal is sent until user inputs data

Frequency Changes depending on Binary

200Hz = 1.2kHz 1kHz

200Hz = 0.8kHz

Possible Solutions
Radio Frequency: This technology is fast and reliable Can be re-tuned very easily BUT: Can be intercepted Hard to encrypt Frequency Shift Keying: Simple to implement in a program Can be picked up easily Can travel through water But: Limited Number of characters available

We experimented with all three solutions. Java was the first we tested. Our lack of knowledge on the java programming language limited what we could do. As a result of this we began looking for a simpler programming language to program with that would allow us to start converting text to ASCII and Frame the output. One of our team members knows the Python language. This allowed us to start testing our idea to see if it would work. This process also helped us to start developing our idea.

Arduino

The Arduino is powered using and ATMEGA-328P which is a 28 pin dip package. It has an on-board voltage regulator for a constant 5volt supply. This allows it to be run off an external power supply other then a USB. It can communicate through serial to a computer How it works in our system: The Arduino receives the serial ASCII data. It then uses a bitwise operand to convert the parallel, serial buffer data, into a serial signal to be sent by a series of changes in the astable output.

Results
What we have achieved: We have significantly increased our knowledge on programming in Python and C. We have succeeded in creating a program that will process input text and output it as data in the form of sound (two tones). We have no physical results but the results can be clearly identified when the program is observed while running. Sound is easily audible if needed and depending on the speed the tones are transmitted. More importantly a receiver would be able to pick the two tones (1kHz, 2kHz). We can test that these tones are being output by using a receiver that converts the frequency into a binary one or zero signal. Our transmitter works but for ease of testing and debugging serial prints that send back information to the computer. The receiver could also have this feature running at the same time to see data flow. To test that the tone is changing at ultra sonic (past our hearing range) we would use a oscilloscope. They display wave patterns showing frequency and amplitude. This would show us the frequency increasing and decreases as the tines change. We would see this as the waves being closer together or further apart in the oscilloscope.

Conclusion
A back up for transmitting data was required in an underwater situation. We thought about the various methods of transmitting data and came to the conclusion that sound was the best option as it travels well under water and doesn't need to be with in human hearing range. After experimenting we decided that the Arduino was the best way to approach the problem. We created a program that allows us input information and it then converts it into ACSII characters and transmits the info as 1 and 0 bits in the form of high and low tones (2kHz, 1kHz). This can then be converted back in to information by a receiver that can be understood. The method of inputting the information to the Arduino is via the serial monitor but this could be done if you install the Arduino IDE on any device with the correct cable connection to the Arduino.

COMPUTER

ARDUINO UNO Serial Buffer

Serial.read()

LOOPS BACK

Bitwise Conversion

Convert to tones

HIGH

LOW

01101001011011001001

PIN 3