Page 63: of Marine Technology Magazine (September 2024)

K DONGSBERG ISCOVERY

Horten, Norway

President: Martin Wien Fjell https://www.kongsberg.com/discovery/

Kongsberg Discovery is a perpetual staple in the MTR100, as subsea and maritime innovation tend to ? ow freely from

Norway.

Recently, the company reported anachievement in the ? eld of autonomous underwater technology with the HUGIN En- durance [pictured above], which completed a multi-week autonomous mission, showcasing the capabilities of this 8-ton, 40-foot AUV. During the mission, HUGIN Endurance operated without human intervention or external navigation aids for the entire duration. After receiving a ? nal naviga- tion update from a pre-deployed transponder 10 hours into the dive, the AUV maintained its autonomy while navigating depths ranging from 50 meters to 3,400 meters. The vehicle met its advertised range of 1,200 nautical miles and returned with a position error of just 0.02% of the total distance trav- eled. The mission plan included straight-line transits cover- ing distances between 60 and 300 nautical miles, as well as more detailed picture of the ocean environment. The EK80 extensive survey areas. The AUV successfully surveyed 36 product family is part of Kongsberg Discovery’s portfolio square nautical miles using Kongsberg’s HISAS 1032 Dual of monitoring and measuring tools and is used for all types of ocean research. The product family has historically been

Rx synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) system, capturing high- resolution imagery and bathymetric data within 48 hours. used primarily for biomass assessments, but the instruments

Additionally, camera imagery and laser pro? ling data were are seeing increased adoption for other biological, physical and chemical oceanography applications. An EK80 vessel- collected at depths as shallow as 9 meters.

Another signi? cant achievement was the strengthening of mounted system typically comprises six transducers operat- ing at different sound frequency spectra, matched with trans-

Kongsberg Discovery’s EK80 echo-sounder product fam- ceivers, software, and planning tools. The transducers are ily [pictured top of next column] with unprecedented wide- band low-frequency capability that will enable customers calibrated to give highly accurate, quantitative metric values across governments, academia and industry to gain a much of application targets.

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