HULL PENETRATOR

REPLACEMENT SYSTEM

(HPRS)

Corey Jaskolski
President – Hydro Technologies, Inc.
December 1, 2006

HYDRO TECHNOLOGIES
700 AUTOMATION DRIVE
W I N D S O R , C O 8 05 5 0
O F F I C E : ( 97 0 ) 67 4- 80 9 4
F A X : ( 9 70) 67 4- 80 95

c j a sk o lsk i@h yd r o- te c h.c o m

www. hydro-tech. c om
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

OVERVIEW............................................................................................................................................................................ 3
FUNCTIONAL DESCRIPTION ...................................................................................................................................... 4
SPECIFICATIONS.............................................................................................................................................................. 5
APPLICATIONS................................................................................................................................................................... 6
AVAILABILITY .................................................................................................................................................................... 7

Hydro Technologies, Inc. Copyright 2006

OVERVIEW
In many underwater applications it is impractical, unsafe, or inconvenient to penetrate a
housing, hull, or pressure vessel with wire penetrators for
data and power transmission. However, neither acoustic
methods nor traditional RF wireless data communications Eliminate penetrators:
HPRS technology
technologies will work in most of these applications due to eliminates the need for
the materials involved. Modern pressure hull materials drilling pass through holes
in pressure hulls for
include aluminum, steel, and titanium depending on the communications and
specific application. The highly conductive nature of these power transmission.

hull materials result in the hull acting as an RF blocking High data rates: Since
HPRS is a direct through-
Faraday cage thus preventing RF wireless communications. the-hull communications
The degree to which RF is blocked depends on the electrical technique, data rates of
>1Mb/s can be achieved
conductivity of the material. Acoustic through-hull depending on materials
communications methods are extremely data rate limited Power Transmission:
(e.g. 20 baud) due to inherent multipath and multimodal Along with data, HPRS
supports transferring
acoustic effects in thin barriers. Additionally, acoustic power through hulls or
methods require a good acoustic interface to each side of a barriers utilizing low
frequency magnetic field
hull or barrier. Finally, neither acoustic nor RF techniques generation for inductive
are able to pass usable amounts of power as well as data power coupling

through hull materials. Low signature: Since

HPRS is a non acoustic
technique, there is no
acoustic signature. The
An alternative to wireless RF communications or through- magnetic fields are
extremely localized and
hull acoustics is the Hull Penetrator Replacement System result in no detectable
(HPRS) developed by Hydro Technologies. This system is field except in the
immediate vicinity of the
designed to eliminate the need for hull penetrations while transducers
still allowing for high speed, low power, and secure data and Secure communication:
power transmission between systems inside and outside of HPRS is compatible with
digital encryption to
a pressure hull or other material. To accomplish this, HPRS prevent outside sources
uses a technique referred to as multi-frequency local from unauthorized access.
HPRS supports the 256-bit
magnetic field modulation to produce magnetic fields AES encryption standard
capable of carrying data and power through almost any which has been cleared for
Top-Secret transmissions
material. Patents for this technique are currently pending. by the NSA as of June
2003.
3

Hydro Technologies, Inc. Copyright 2006

 FUNCTIONAL DESCRIPTION
The HPRS platform has been designed to provide robust data and power transfer through
nearly any hull or structural material. Unlike RF communication which is blocked by relatively
small amounts of conductive material (e.g. metals or seawater), or acoustic communication
which requires a direct acoustic path, or optical communication which requires transparent
media, the modulated magnetic field that HPRS uses is only affected by the magnetic
permeability of the material through which the data and power is transmitted. This means that
materials such as seawater, aluminum, stainless steel, fiberglass, carbon composites, and
titanium are completely “transparent” to this communications technique as their magnetic
permeabilities are near that of air. Even alloys that have fairly high magnetic permeabilities,
such as HY-80 steel, are compatible with HPRS, although at a lower data and power transfer
rate.

Figure 1: HPRS functional diagram

The main system components of the HPRS platform are shown in Figure 1. Starting from the
left-hand side of the diagram, the first block is a sensor or other signal source. This could be
any device that produces either an analog or a digital signal which is to be passed through the
hull. The next block, labeled signal conditioning, transforms the raw sensor or transducer
signal into a digital stream which is then input into a digital signal processor (DSP). Firmware
in the DSP performs digital modulation of the data and possibly encryption and other
4 processing of the input data. This modulated and processed communication stream from the

Hydro Technologies, Inc. Copyright 2006

DSP is then mixed with a low frequency wave for power transmission and sent through a
magnetic transducer. The hardware on the other side of the pressure hull reverses this entire
process by coupling the magnetic field through its magnetic transducer, filtering out the low
frequency power carrier, digitizing the analog signal, demodulating the signal, and decrypting
the digital data. The net result is that the signal generated at the sensor or other equipment
on one side of the hull or barrier is available on the other side of the hull or barrier along with
power without the need for a physical penetrator. HPRS is bidirectional so power and data can
be transferred to and from both sides of the hull or barrier if required.

SPECIFICATIONS
The HPRS platform is still under development with full commercial release expected to occur in
mid 2008. To date, HPRS has been tested through many materials including: fiberglass,
marine grade aluminum, stainless steel, air, seawater, HY-80, other alloys used in Navy ship
construction, and stacked combinations of these materials. Through materials with low
magnetic permeability (e.g. almost anything except highly magnetic steels) data rates of more
than 1 Mb/s are achievable. For heavily magnetic steel (e.g. HY-80) typical data rates of 10’s
of kHz are achievable.

Although primarily a means for high speed through-hull communications, the nature of the
magnetic field transducers used in HPRS also allow for the transfer of power through a hull or
barrier. Power transfer of up to 100W is feasible with the current system. The efficiency of the
power transfer depends on the separation between the two transceivers as well as the material
in between. As with the data transmission, power transmission is more efficient through
materials with low magnetic permeability.

The HPRS platform consists of a pair of bidirectional transceivers, a control and

communications electronics board, and an optional power transmission board. The entire
system is pressure tolerant to full ocean depth.

Hydro Technologies, Inc. Copyright 2006

 APPLICATIONS
The HPRS platform has application anywhere data and/or power needs to be communicated
from one side of a hull, pressure vessel, pipe, or other barrier to the other within a range of
about 1 meter. Along with permanent installations such as placing sensors in sealed
containers, HPRS is also appropriate where data and power is required through a barrier
without permanent modification.

Some of the many applications of HPRS include:

„ Inter-pressure vessel communication on UUVs and ROVs

„ Supporting testing for new sensors on manned submersibles and submarines

without alterations to the hull

„ Temporary installation of multibeam or acoustic positioning equipment on

vessels of opportunity

„ Simplification of moored ocean floor sensor connectors

„ Transmission of sensor data and power through the wall of sealed containers
such as nuclear waste storage containers

„ Data communication through pipe walls

„ High speed (1 Mb/s) data transfer and 100W power transmission through
materials such as aluminum, stainless steel, titanium, fiberglass, glass,
seawater, and air

„ Moderate speed data (10-50 kb/s) and 10W power transmission though
magnetic materials such as HY-80.

„ High temperature applications (transducers have been tested to 200° C)

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 Transmit Electronics Metal Barrier
(battery powered)

Data
&
Power

Receiver Electronics

Figure 2: Demonstration of HPRS communicating through 1” thick stainless steel as shown at

Oceans 2006 and UDT Pacific 2006. Actual transducers are about 1” diameter and are
embedded in the white Delrin stands.

AVAILABILITY
The core of the HPRS platform has been demonstrated and is in use in an active Navy
application. The HPRS system is currently being made available to select partners with full
commercial availability expected by the second quarter of 2008. Hydro Technologies is actively
seeking an industrial or government partner to continue work in increasing the data rate and
power transmission capabilities of this technology beyond what is currently achievable.

Hydro Technologies, Inc. Copyright 2006