Page 47: of Marine Technology Magazine (October 2020)

Photo: Sonardyne (mm or cm/year), fragile and extremely sensitive to environ-

HMS-621CHIRPceiverLitt mental changes and human activities such as trawling. Any

COASTAL SUB-BOTTOM SYSTEM damage can be irreversible, making monitoring critical. Since healthy coral can only be distinguished from dead frameworks

TYPICAL APPLICATIONS by their colour, imaging – at a subcentimetre-level and in co- ?CoastalEngineering lour – is critical, which means underwater cameras are a must. ?GeotechnicalInvestigation

But because these reefs are sparsely distributed over city-sized ?SmallVessel&USVGeophysicalSurveys areas, monitoring can be time-consuming and costly.

?DamSiteSurveys&PipelineInvestigation

BioCam hopes to address this type of challenge. The project, ?ArcheologicalSurveys&SeabedClassification launched in 2017, builds on the earlier SeaXerocks system and leverages advances in lighting and higher resolution detector technology to enable 3D imaging capable of mapping the sea- ? oor at millimetric-scale, from up to 10 m altitudes. This enables increased area coverage and safer altitude operation from sig- ni? cantly faster-moving AUVs, potentially enabling data gath-

HMS?621 1?10KHzOVERTHE 8?23KHzPIPELINER ering at signi? cantly faster rates than existing technologies. The

CHIRPcieverLitt SIDEMOUNT

ARRAY

BioCam design has been underpinned by electro-mechanical de- sign, testing and manufacturing support from Sonardyne, with a key focus on ensuring the system was smaller, lighter and less power hungry so that it could be used on long-endurance AUVs.

At its core is a pair of high-dynamic range scienti? c CMOS (complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor) cameras, each with 2,560 x 2,160 pixel resolution – double that of SeaXe- rocks. These are mounted in a 4000 m-rated titanium housing, optimised for AUV mounting, that also includes low-power

FalmouthScientific,Inc.

electronics to control the lasers, strobe illumination, commu-

Cataumet,MAUSA02534 nication, data acquisition and processing.

Tel:+1?508?564?7640?Fax:+1?508?564?7643

Like SeaXerocks, BioCam uses laser lines, but has two la- [email protected]?www.falmouth.com sers, which are pulsed in synchronisation with the camera. www.marinetechnologynews.com 47

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