Page 34: of Marine Technology Magazine (June 2019)

NORBIT DCT

Hydrographic Survey Made Easy

By Pawel Pocwiardowski, Product Director, Sonar Systems, NORBIT Subsea ith the increasing number of maritime ? ciency of survey. operations worldwide, more and more For the past years, NORBIT has been leading the manufac- hydrographic surveys are required to be turing of ultra-high resolution curved-array bathymetric map- conducted. This exerts a demand for hy- ping solution and its technology has been widely accepted by

Wdrography providers with survey capabili- the maritime markets across the world. The integrated hard- ties ranging from single-beam to multibeam echosounders, ware offerings have set the grand entry path for the users of sub-bottom pro? lers, lidar, and magnetometers. The devel- these systems, due to simple mobilization and operation of oped markets with a long history of bathymetry and hydrogra- hardware. Survey organizations (commercial and government phy surveys are well prepared to serve the increased demand such as navy), have started to utilize small survey boats with with professional hydrographers, equipment and software a single person running the operations or utilizing unmanned support. However, in emerging markets and developing coun- surface vessels (USV). The cost related to running these sur- tries, the professional hydrography market requires a different vey operations can then be limited and more companies can approach as the backlog of professional hydrographic survey- perform bathymetry missions which in the past would not be ors is not established yet. The current commercially available in their reach.

tools require ex-tensive training and understanding of the sur- However, the survey tools, available commercially, still vey setup and for many smaller companies that presents a bar- prove to limit the full potential of the new emerging markets rier which is very challenging if not impossible to cross. To due to its complexity on both, setup, installation and operation address these emerging markets and the need for simple tools as well as data post-processing and ? nal product deliverables. to perform basic bathymetry surveys NORBIT has developed To address these emerging market needs, NORBIT has re- the DCT – Data Collection Tool. cently developed a survey utility called Data Collection Tool (DCT) to facilitate a simpler survey operation and provide a

Contemporary hydrography needs means to collect quality bathymetric data, ready to be post-

Nowadays hydrographic surveys become more and more processed and delivered to the end client. commoditized due to the standardization of requirements and deliverables. The increased demand in various bathymetry What is DCT?

mapping projects propels the development of standard tools The Data Collection Tool (DCT) is a survey data acquisition and further facilitates the adaptation of the high-resolution utility, part of NORBIT’s offerings aimed to simplify the stan- mapping technologies across the industries. That ranges from dard bathymetry survey operations. The general bathymetry safety of navigation projects, through dredging and various grid is displayed in a web browser allowing quick estimation construction and environmental projects like habitat mapping of the coverage and data quality in real-time while running and bottom classi? cation. It crosses commercial markets as the survey.

well as government and public agencies. These developments DCT can be operated with a simple touch screen of the extend widely throughout the world from oceans and lakes navigation plotter, tablet, smartphone or PC by a single per- to rivers, in-land reservoirs, port, channels and man-made ba- son. By reducing the amount of con? guration required by the sins. With the technology being easier and cheaper to use, the user the real-estate on the screen is maximized allowing for a number of applications and use cases has increased dramati- clear, precise and easy way to understand the interface. With a cally in recent years. Especially an urgent need for integrated simple Start/Stop button the user can acquire the needed data simple-to-use mapping and imaging hydrography technology which are then recorded on the survey PC. The skipper or boat has emerged in the transitional market of users of single-beam driver can run the survey without constantly recon-? guring (or sidescan) to multibeam technology. That is driven by mul- the system, allowing him to concentrate the efforts on safety tibeam wide-coverage, high accuracy, high resolution and ef- aspects and any other tasks while running the survey opera-

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