Page 43: of Marine Technology Magazine (June 2014)

Following the integration of Sonardyne International Ltd.’s Sol- stice Side Scan Sonar with a Bluefi n Robotics Bluefi n-12 Au- tonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), the results of recent pay- load testing have produced exceptionally high quality imagery, according to the companies involved and attested by the photo gracing this month’s cover and to the left.

The most recent trials of the Bluefi n-12 AUV with integrated

Solstice were conducted from Bluefi n Robotics’ headquarters in Quincy, Massachusetts, where the AUV was deployed from

Bluefi n’s vessel, the R/V Resolution, to perform short missions around the Boston Harbor area in approximately 15m of water.

Each mission consisted of legs of 500m, during which the AUV fl ew in a pattern commonly known as ‘mowing the lawn.’ “We are pleased with how quickly we were able to integrate the sonar and collect high-quality data,” said Will O’Halloran,

Marine Operations Manager at Bluefi n Robotics. “The imagery is some of the best I have seen in my 10 years of operating AUVs and reviewing data sets. The Solstice sonar is an excellent pay- load option for our clients who want exceptional imagery from low-logistics, rapidly-deployable AUVs.” “A pipeline end manifold (PLEM) surveyed during the trial provided an excellent target to show the resolution and contrast performance of Solstice. This PLEM consists of a large square template, pipe and mattress protectors; you can see where the individual elements of the mattress are clearly resolved in the imagery,” commented Nick Swift, Sonardyne’s Business Man- ager for Maritime Security. “This imagery is further proof of

Solstice’s exceptional image quality and is thanks to advanced processing techniques, inbuilt technologies and a unique array design for minimizing multipath effects.” www.sonardyne.com

Bluefi n Robotics

AUV with

Sonardyne Solstice

Solstice surveyed this pipeline end manifold (PLEM) during the trial. It provided an excellent target to showcase the resolution and contrast performance of the side scan sonar. www.seadiscovery.com

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