Traditional approaches for underwater communication can require significant power usage and large antennas. By contrast, BlueME operates at its natural resonant frequency to effectively transmit and receive very low and low-frequency (VLF/LF) electromagnetic signals underwater.
University of Florida researchers have been testing robots in environments ranging from freshwater lakes to ocean conditions, training them to communicate more efficiently in murky water. Coordinating multiple robots underwater is an especially difficult problem, largely because communication bandwidth and range remain limited.
Many underwater robots can currently only exchange brief status signals or must surface periodically to transmit data back to operators. As one of the project leaders, Md Jahidul Islam, PhD, notes, this “significantly limits real-time autonomy and coordination.”
Conventional solutions to extend communication range typically rely on larger antennas or higher power consumption, making them impractical for compact robotic platforms operating in murky, energy-constrained environments.
The researchers' goal is to enable underwater robots to share information over longer distances using compact, energy-efficient equipment, a capability they say could improve naval operations, environmental monitoring, and offshore infrastructure inspection.
To help close this gap, the team has developed BlueME, a compact magnetoelectric antenna system now in prototype form, with a provisional patent filed and additional funding being sought to expand testing.
Resonance, Medical Implants, and a Key Insight
BlueME operates with its own natural resonance frequency to efficiently transmit and receive VLF/LF electromagnetic signals underwater.
The system was developed jointly by Islam, whose research focuses on marine robotics, and Adam Khalifa, PhD, whose background is in miniature wireless medical implants. The cross-disciplinary connection proved decisive.
Khalifa recognized that the challenge of transmitting signals through the highly conductive environment of the human body mirrors the physics of underwater communication. That insight reframed the problem and opened the door to applying ME antenna design principles to ocean robotics for the first time.
BlueME integrates the ME antenna array onto low-power embedded platforms with a focus on portability and scalability. The full system draws around 10 W at maximum capacity, comparable to a standard stereo camera, a deliberate design benchmark intended to ensure the antenna does not dominate a robot's energy budget.
The fabrication process covers simulation, material selection, and integration, with the array architecture designed to be deployable on mobile robot platforms of varying sizes.
Lake, Ocean, and the Numbers That Matter
The team deployed BlueME on mobile robot platforms across two distinct environments, namely, freshwater trials at Lake Wahlberg and saltwater ocean trials. Both settings introduced real-world conditions that laboratory testing cannot replicate.
In ocean trials, BlueME demonstrated reliable signal transmission and detection at distances exceeding 700 meters. Islam noted that this range means a robot could check in with its operator every 10 minutes, allowing for real-time decisions and mission adjustments along the way.
The system was also proven to operate well in a difficult environment, overcoming obstacles, turbidity, and multipath interference, which often degrade optical and acoustic communication methods.
The system maintained performance even under full submersion, with the team conducting a detailed analysis of how complete underwater deployment affects signal behavior and identifying key considerations for practical deployment.
The team believes this represents one of the first practical demonstrations of a compact magnetoelectric antenna system for underwater robotic communication.
The team has filed a provisional patent on the technology and is seeking further funding to expand testing with autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and develop larger-scale multi-robot deployments. As Khalifa noted, these results were achieved with very limited initial resources, suggesting considerable room for growth with further development.
Early Days of a Bigger Picture
BlueME demonstrates that compact, power-efficient underwater robot-to-robot communication is achievable over operationally meaningful ranges, with implications for naval operations, environmental monitoring, and offshore infrastructure inspections.
The authors acknowledge that the current work is a first deployment rather than a finished product. Key next steps include scaling the system to larger AUV fleets, extending the range further, and refining the antenna design with dedicated engineering resources.
Islam and Khalifa believe the technology represents the early stages of a larger transformation in ocean robotics, with the potential to fundamentally change how autonomous marine systems collaborate in complex environments.
Journal Reference
M. Talebi, S. Mahmud, A. Khalifa, and M. J. Islam. (2026) BlueME: Robust Underwater Robot-to-Robot Communication Using Compact Magnetoelectric Antennas. IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11506063
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