Staff Profile

I am internationally-recognised as a successful research engineer, drawing on 21 years of engineering consultancy and research experience in my current role as a Research Associate working in acoustic signal processing and embedded systems in SEA Lab, EEE, School of Engineering.

My research focuses on underwater wireless communications with the design and simulation of waveforms and signal-processing in receiver structures before implementation on typically bespoke low-power and low-cost embedded platforms. My research is taken to high technology readiness levels (TRL) (6-7) with a view to commercialisation through licensing, leading to substantial real-world impact.

My ORCID profile is here. My Google Scholar profile is here.

Areas of Expertise

Signal processing, underwater acoustic communications, embedded systems, ARM, C/C++, Python, MATLAB, prototyping,

Projects

Commercial research and development projects improving the performance of commercially available underwater modem technology.

NETTAG+

Research and development to high TRL of new underwater acoustic tag devices for locating lost equipment at sea to reduce Ghost Fishing and plastic waste by enabling the location and retrieval of lost fishing gear. It is also useful for finding research equipment such as SoundTraps lost in storms.

https://nettagplus.eu/

https://projects.research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/en/funding/funding-opportunities/funding-programmes-and-open-calls/horizon-europe/eu-missions-horizon-europe/restore-our-ocean-and-waters/successful-trials-nettag-system-locating-lost-gear

MONUSEN

Participating in the EU Horizons MONUSEN (MONTENEGRIN CENTER FOR UNDERWATER SENSOR NETWORKS) project in knowledge and technology transfer covering underwater acoustic communications http://www.monusen.ucg.ac.me/ https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101060395

COUSIN

Research and development of offshore communications infrastructure and modems on the EPSRC COUSIN project. https://gow.epsrc.ukri.org/NGBOViewGrant.aspx?GrantRef=EP/V009583/1

Phorcys

Contributed to the development of the Phorcys Open Media Layer specification (POMLSv0). https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=9905673

Modems

Research and Development of NM3 acoustic modems - Low cost, low power underwater acoustic modems for distributed sensor networks and positioning applications. Digital signal processing, ARM microcontrollers, analogue and digital electronics design and manufacture, C and assembler software engineering. https://research.ncl.ac.uk/usmart/ The technology has been commercialised and is available as off-the-shelf acoustic modems: https://succorfish.com/products/delphis/

Python drivers and examples for NM3 modems can be found at: https://github.com/bensherlock/nm3-python-driver

XPRIZE

Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE TEAM Tao - Part of the Newcastle University SEA Lab team, designing and producing the Sonar system that is integral to the subsea automated vehicles. FPGA and VHDL with digital signal processing, electronics design, PC based C/C++ software engineering. https://www.xprize.org/prizes/ocean-discovery/teams/team_tao 

Hydrophone Live Stream

Design of electronics, systems, and software for the SEALab Acoustic Network Gateway Buoy (ANGY). Live streaming hydrophones to the ANGY YouTube Channel (mainly during the lighter months as ANGY is solar powered, but previous recordings are archived on youtube): https://www.youtube.com/angy-sealab . The live stream also featured in the REVEIL2020 24HR Dawn Chorus Stream for International Dawn Chorus 2020.

Selected recordings from ANGY also contributed to an immersive soundscape for World Oceans Day 2020: https://daviddelahaye.co.uk/world-oceans-day-2020/

Commercial Modem Improvements

Commercial consultancy to improve the performance of wireless through-water/air communications with improvements to waveform and receiver structures. Validated through simulations, experiments, and implementation on embedded hardware. The improved modems are now commercially available.

Academic Qualifications

• PhD Electronic Engineering, Newcastle University, 2018. Thesis title: "Spread-Spectrum Techniques for Environmentally-Friendly Underwater Acoustic Communications".
• MEng (Hons) Microelectronics and Software Engineering, Newcastle University, 2003.

• Articles

  • Sherlock B, Morozs N, Neasham J, Mitchell P. Ultra-Low-Cost and Ultra-Low-Power, Miniature Acoustic Modems Using Multipath Tolerant Spread-Spectrum Techniques. Electronics 2022, 11(9), 1446.
  • Lowes GJ, Neasham J, Burnett R, Sherlock B, Tsimenidis C. Passive Acoustic Detection of Vessel Activity by Low-Energy Wireless Sensors. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering 2022, 10(2), 248.
  • Morozs N, Sherlock B, Henson BT, Neasham JA, Mitchell PD, Zakharov Y. Data Gathering in UWA Sensor Networks: Practical Considerations and Lessons from Sea Trials. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering 2022, 10(9), 1268.
  • Sherlock B, Neasham JA, Tsimenidis CC. Spread-Spectrum Techniques for Bio-Friendly Underwater Acoustic Communications. IEEE Access 2018, 6, 4506-4520.

• Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)

  • Lowes GJ, Neasham J, Sherlock B, Burnett R. Low-Power, Low-Cost LoRaWAN Gateway Buoy for use with Wireless Underwater Sensor Networks. In: OCEANS 2023-Limerick. 2023, Limerick, Ireland: IEEE.
  • Morozs N, Mitchell PD, Zakharov Y, Sherlock B, Neasham JA, Tsimenidis CC, Mourya R, Petillot YR, Gibney T, Dragone M, Sayed ME, McConnell AC, Aracri S, Stokes AA. Robust TDA-MAC for practical underwater sensor network deployment: Lessons from usmart sea trials. In: Proceedings of the Thirteenth ACM International Conference on Underwater Networks & Systems. 2018, Shenzen, China: Association for Computing Machinery.
  • Sherlock B, Neasham JA, Tsimenidis CC. Implementation of a spread-spectrum acoustic modem on an android mobile device. In: OCEANS 2017 - Aberdeen. 2017, Aberdeen, UK: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
  • Brennen DR, Evans GD, Blythe PT, Sherlock B. Localisation and evacuation of travellers in emergency situations: The SAVE ME Project. In: 18th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems. 2012, Vienna, Austria.