Developing Next Generation AUV

Subsea 7 and SeeByte have joined forces to develop the next generation of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) for the offshore oil and gas industry. The project will see the development of the first truly autonomous vehicle capable of both inspection and light intervention in an offshore environment. SeeByte Ltd, providing solutions for improved awareness and robot autonomy, and Subsea 7, subsea engineering, construction and technology companies, aim to provide the offshore oil and gas industry with a new concept of autonomous inspection and intervention vehicles. The vehicle, deployed from a host facility, will be capable of inspecting risers, pipelines,... (read more)

2008-02-27 10:03:47

Optimising AUV Battery Efficiency

Steatite has worked with NOC to develop a mission-critical Lithium Primary solution that increased an AUV’s endurance while reducing the whole life cost. AUV deployment can be costly with limited deployment and recovery times, so deploying for as long as possible can be essential. Historically, NOC has used Alkaline and Lithium Polymer battery packs in AUVs but with the ever-increasing deployment demands on endurance, NOC required a fresh approach to power. Steatite’s Lithium Primary solution offered a number of benefits over the existing Alkaline solution such as greater endurance due to the increased energy density, weight saving,... (read more)

2013-04-09 02:33:14

UTEC Doubles AUV Fleet

UTEC Survey, USA, has doubled its AUV fleet to four vehicles in response to increasing demand for its AUV services. The company now operates a fleet of identically equipped 1,000m rated AUV systems. The fleet offers enhanced subsea positioning, robust operational performance, and low logistics designed for dual-mode operations utilising clients' vessels of opportunity. The AUVs are comprised of separate modules enabling operators to change configuration by adding or removing sensor modules, subject to the requirements of each mission. Typical missions have included pre-route survey, structure and pipeline inspection, scour monitoring and shallow environmental investigation. The ability to rapidly reconfigure... (read more)

2014-05-02 08:59:23

AUV Ultra Stable Clock

ACSA Underwater GPS France has launched an embedded Ultra-Stable Clock specially designed for AUVs. Key features of that board are: 10-8 clock stability, low power consumption, automatic synchronisation on GPS time using vehicle’s GPS receiver, PC-104 size. Time is delivered through serial and TCP/IP links (NTP protocol). 8 Fully programmable trigger lines are used to synchronise up to 8 payloads. The electronic board is delivered with a manual and a configuration software. ACSA proposes also a surface version of this board to synchronise realtime computer clocks on GPS-UTC. This product is already in service onboard numerous AUVs worldwide. (read more)

2005-03-28 12:00:00

AUV Programme Manager

Phoenix International Holdings, Inc. (USA) has appointed Christopher S. Moore as Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Manager. He will be responsible for planning and managing all AUV activities associated with Phoenix’s recent acquisition of a 21 inch diameter Bluefin Robotics AUV. His responsibilities will include identifying potential markets, developing market penetration strategies, and executing those strategies. Mr. Moore spent more than 25 years working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) where he retired at the rank of Captain in the NOAA Corps. While at NOAA, Mr. Moore held operational and programmatic positions that included multiple Commands at Sea; Director,... (read more)

2012-11-20 11:42:54

‘Killer’ AUV Sonar System

In January 2001, C&C Technologies (C&C), a company based in Lafayette (Louisiana, USA), introduced the first commercially successful autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) to the offshore industry. The AUV’s survey sensor suite, which included an EdgeTech side-scan sonar and sub-bottom profiler, performed well in the Gulf of Mexico and Brazilian offshore environments. However, West Africa proved more challenging – particularly for the sub-bottom profiler. C&C soon began searching for alternative technologies to provide better sub-bottom profiler penetration and higher resolution side-scan sonar imaging.Jim Chance, C&C Technologies (USA) Art Kleiner, EdgeTech (USA)<P> Narrator: Fast forward to the early autumn of 2004… C&C... (read more)

2008-04-02 12:00:00

Iver2 AUV Orders

OceanServer Technology has received purchase orders for twelve new Iver2 AUVs from seven different customers during the last two months. Vehicle orders span four different defense related applications with the majority of these vehicles going to overseas customers. Research-related vehicles will be delivered to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI), University of Michigan, YSI Environmental and the US Naval Research Laboratory. The University of Michigan will be taking delivery of their third Iver2 AUV, which will be primarily used for benthic mapping and water quality monitoring in several EPA-designated "areas of concern" in and around the Great Lakes. OceanServer expects to... (read more)

2010-12-22 01:48:45

KAUST Purchases Hydroid AUV

Hydroid, USA, has delivered a REMUS 100 AUV to Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST). The REMUS AUV was procured by Naizak Global Engineering Services, KAUST’s purchasing agent and Unique Group, Hydroid’s representative in Saudi Arabia. KAUST will use the REMUS 100 AUV for marine ecology and geology research and education in the Red Sea. KAUST, which is wholly owned and run by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, needed a versatile AUV that could study the Red Sea from multiple angles and provide multiple functions, from climate-related sea floor sampling to oceanographic mapping. The university... (read more)

2012-02-13 02:05:33

C-Surveyor II AUV

A C & C Technologies deepwater AUV, C-Surveyor II, has been delivered to corporate headquarters. C & C purchased the C-Surveyor II as a base vehicle in November 2004 and has worked diligently over the last six months to integrate and build customised components for this next-generation survey AUV. The design of the C-Surveyor II is modelled on an existing AUV, C-Surveyor I, and includes a multi-beam echo sounder, chirp side-scan sonar, chirp sub-bottom profiler, CTD system and methane detector. The Edgetech DW106 sub-bottom profiler on board is customised with narrow transmit and receive beams to permit significantly deeper seabed... (read more)

2005-06-29 12:00:00

2014 AUV Hydrographic Bootcamp

Hydroid, USA, is to sponsor the AUV Hydrographic Bootcamp which is taking place from 3 to 8 August 2014 at the University of New Hampshire’s Judd Gregg Marine Science Complex in New Castle, NH, USA. The symposium will focus on developing new methods of AUV operations, data collection, processing and display. The intensive six-day course is by invitation only, and will teach participants about the operational methods of AUVs to collect bathymetric data for the purposes of nautical charting and the data processing techniques required to create hydrographic-quality survey products. Designed for AUV operators, commercial software developers, engineers, researchers and... (read more)

2014-07-23 09:15:39