First Practical Survey Project for CIDCO’s Cat-B Students

This summer, the students who followed the first session of the CIDCO IHO-recognised category B course in hydrographic surveying completed their field project in Rimouski (QC), Canada. After an 8-month period of e-learning lectures, the students had acquired the necessary knowledge in various fields such as positioning, tide, bathymetry, acoustics, data processing and survey planning to be able to accomplish the 5-week residential survey project.

Thanks to the support of different partners, they carried out their practical work with professional systems and softwares which are commonly used in the industry. After an introduction to single-beam and multi-beam acquisition in Rimouski’s harbor with PDS2000 (Teledyne Reson) and QINSy (QPS), they processed data with Teledyne Caris HIPS. The loan of an interferometric sonar 3DSS-DX from Ping DSP and a PosMV Surfmaster from Applanix, gave them the opportunity to achieve a complete integration of a hydrographic survey system on an Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV).

Through this project, they have been introduced to classic MBES survey methods, but also to autonomous surveys which are increasingly used in the industry.

This year again, the CIDCO will deliver the IHO-recognised category B course in hydrographic surveying. This course is aimed at an audience of graduates with a technical diploma in land surveying.