<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<style type="text/css" style="display:none;"> P {margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;} </style>
</head>
<body dir="ltr">
<div class="elementToProof" style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
<br>
</div>
<table id="x_m_-8390434547193899728x_tableSelected1" align="center" style="direction: ltr; width: 606px; height: 1326px; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="direction: ltr; width: 602px; height: 1232px; box-sizing: border-box;">
<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><img alt="Dissertation Defense Announcement at the Cullen College of Engineering" id="x_m_-8390434547193899728x_x__x0000_i1026" data-bit="iit" style="width: 6.25in; height: 1.7812in; max-width: 2240px; max-height: 1008px; margin: 0px;" src="https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/LvWUba1VeNhfOVcs60QzPiTNIqs5YUBd3B_W7jWijS4JX84N3levSVZiVkQws6De1xogrebFMi4S8lWTSD5VoZyghYQfbGOd1RymzvcA0pT_rKkr8gKpzy_RagnGZ_QhIqYtpH0xsxY=s0-d-e1-ft#https://www.egr.uh.edu/sites/www.egr.uh.edu/files/enews/2022/images/dissertation1.png"></span></div>
<div style="height: 21px;">
<div style="height: 21px; display: inline-block; background-color: initial;"></div>
</div>
<table id="x_m_-8390434547193899728x_tableSelected0" align="center" style="direction: ltr; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="center" style="direction: ltr; padding: 40px 20px 10px;">
<div style="direction: ltr; line-height: 28px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; color: rgb(200, 16, 46);"><b>Magnetic Based Methods for Underwater Localization and Navigation</b></span></div>
<div style="margin: 30px 0px;">
<div style="direction: ltr; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 5px;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><b>Javier Garcia Gonzalez</b></span></div>
<p style="direction: ltr; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 5px;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">December 1, 2023; 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM (CST)<br>
Location: ECE Conference Room, Eng Bldg 1</span></p>
</div>
<p style="direction: ltr; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 5px;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><b>Committee Chair:</b></span></p>
<p style="direction: ltr; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 5px;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Aaron T. Becker, Ph.D.</span></p>
<p style="direction: ltr; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><b>Committee Members:</b></span></p>
<p style="direction: ltr; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Miao Pan, Ph.D. | Jiefu Chen, Ph.D. | Zheng Chen, Ph.D.
| Julien Leclerc, Ph.D.</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="direction: ltr; padding: 0px 20px 20px;">
<p style="direction: ltr; line-height: 22px; margin: 15px 0px; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(200, 16, 46);">
<span style="letter-spacing: normal; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Abstract</b></span></p>
<p style="direction: ltr; line-height: 22px; margin: 15px 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Underwater robotics is a rapidly expanding field with many important applications.
From exploration and maintenance of oil and gas installations, to search and rescue, to defense, the use of robotic agents has become desirable for efficiency and safety reasons. However, performing tasks with only one agent usually necessitates an increase
in size and complexity, which in turn exacerbates the power requirements that can drastically reduce run times. For that reason, dividing tasks between a group of agents, a robotic swarm, is a proposition we wish to pursue. The work on this project focused
on the practical implementation of underwater localization and navigation. In order for robotic agents to cooperate and efficiently work together, they must be able to efficiently locate each other and communicate. </span></p>
<p style="direction: ltr; line-height: 22px; margin: 15px 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">While many technologies have been employed for communication in underwater
environments, they have drawbacks that we try to address through the use of magnetic induction (MI) communications. The first part of this dissertation focuses on implementing MI so different agents, with very limited prior knowledge of the swarm, can find
each other and communicate at short distances, where collision between agents is most probable. The theoretical basis and validation, as well as hardware design and implementation are covered. </span></p>
<p style="direction: ltr; line-height: 22px; margin: 15px 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The use of magnetics to find ferrous objects underwater is presented in the
second part. This is important for inspection and maintenance tasks, as it can complement vision-based methods in finding structures in waters with low visibility or even partially covered by the ocean floor, as well as for navigating around said structures.</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="direction: ltr; width: 602px; height: 88px; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: 400; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><img alt="Engineered For What's Next" data-bit="iit" width="600" height="82" style="width: 600px; height: 82px;" src="https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/Hq2wYknEttMelFsTEDPcPaMLFaflZA1NtvvYMmdujm5jNyliC0SBG9XveUwFZPcN-lCY-mfTmchH7briYX3EPBDJpQzTEcQ8ZmYnKNv9oHgaBbFyWoqPkSebP0KGj8XUCGYviN2RuHM=s0-d-e1-ft#https://www.egr.uh.edu/sites/www.egr.uh.edu/files/enews/2022/images/dissertation2.png"></span></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Aptos, Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br>
</span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr; font-family: Aptos, Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
<br>
</div>
</body>
</html>