The disappearance and tragic loss of the Titan submersible and its five occupants during a dive to explore the Titanic wreckage in the Atlantic Ocean earlier this summer brought deep-sea operations, autonomous underwater vehicles, and remotely operated vehicles into the global spotlight.
The news was of special interest to Khalid Halba, an expert on networks and telecommunications engineering who studies autonomous underwater vehicles, including their communication models, at the Institute for Assured Autonomy. An associate research scientist, Halba works on developing autonomous technologies, applying statistical techniques, creating digital replicas of physical systems, and programming network interfaces for vehicles and smart devices.
“In the case of the Titan, the first sign that something was wrong occurred one hour and 45 minutes into its journey when the submersible stopped communicating with its surface support vehicle. We now know that the vehicle suffered a catastrophic implosion, a fact confirmed by the U.S. Navy’s Sound Surveillance System, which detected the sound of the implosion. AUVs use their communication systems to share real-time data with other vehicles, both underwater and above water, and, upon surfacing, with satellites, surface support vessels, and buoy stations,” says Halba, who is also using artificial intelligence and digital twins in generative design and 3D printing to optimize the design of submersibles. This preserves their reliability under various loads, which can improve AUV performance and mission success.
According to Halba, the Titan incident underscores the importance of passive detection methods like acoustic monitoring as a valuable technology for locating AUVs when communication is lost.
“It also highlights the significance of rigorous development and testing of these communication systems to improve safety and mission success in submersible survey or exploration missions,” he said.
In addition to his work on autonomous underwater vehicles, Halba explores V2X (vehicle-to-everything) communication challenges as part of a collaborative team comprising students and faculty in the Whiting School of Engineering. Their goal is to explore innovative approaches for enhancing traffic efficiency while fortifying against potential cyber-attacks.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Halba’s research has also included investigations into smart medical devices and healthcare systems. He explored using open-source digital twins to evaluate health condition scenarios and data points, especially in respiratory conditions, with the goal being the introduction of a health improvement indicator to assess multiple signals from the patient, clinicians, and smart medical devices to determine patient discharge readiness He is working with researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Whiting School of Engineering on the development of a smart ventilator that monitors breathing and lung functions to enhance critical care.
Halba currently examines mission success rate key performance indicators for autonomous underwater vehicles as examples of composite capabilities, integrating atomic elements such as communication, control, sensing, actuation, and data analysis. He worked previously under the auspices of the Professional Research Experience Program, a collaboration between the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Johns Hopkins University.
His doctoral research at France’s Université Grenoble Alpes assessed Internet of Things composite capabilities in different smart-city domains, including buildings, smart ICUs, and intelligent transportation systems.