Page 10: of Marine Technology Magazine (October 2014)

Tech File Yorkshire and the Humber Police ar- eas, through their regional underwater search and marine unit, have been us- ing the Tritech SeaKing Hammerhead system to locate missing persons. The system was recently deployed at Snails- den Reservoir, in the peak district, South Yorkshire, England, where it enabled the team to locate the body of a missing person who was believed drowned. Prior to deployment of the sonar, the area was mapped using Tritech?s StarFish 990F, a high-resolution side scan sonar system, to ensure the safety of divers entering the waterway; ultimately reducing the amount of time they had to be in the wa- ter, making the operation safer. Send in the HammerheadTritech?s SeaKing Hammerhead sonar provides 360 degree scans of the search area, a geo-referenced plotter display and a built in compass ensures accu- rate marking and mapping of the search area. The SeaKing Hammerhead can be operated in two frequencies; 675 kHz for large area survey, up to a radius of 100m and 935 kHz for high-de nition target examination at up to 40m radius. ?In our role, we are required to locate missing persons quickly and safely, of- ten in nil-visibility conditions the im-ages provided by Tritech?s SeaKing Hammerhead and StarFish 990F were fantastic,? said Sergeant Steve Birss, Yorkshire and the Humber Police ma- rine unit. ?The use of this equipment enables us to search larger areas in less time and then quickly guide the diver directly to the missing person. Using this equipment at Snailsden Reservoir reduced the search from weeks to hours, ultimately providing closure for the family concerned.? ?In addition, Tritech?s generosity when we were engaged in very high pro-  le searches in York, North Yorkshire proved invaluable. Prior to our purchase Tritech Hammerhead OceanServer Technology son a contract for one Iver3 AUV by the US Naval Undersea War- fare Center (NUWC) in Newport, RI, a system that will include several Iver3 options just released including the Rowe Technologies, Inc. (RTI) SeaPILOT 600 kHz Doppler Velocity Log with ADCP. RTI?s SeaPILOT family of Doppler Ve- locity Logs (DVLs) represents some of the industry?s newest and state-of-the- art acoustic Doppler technology. The compact form factor and powerful electronics provide a versatile platform capable of producing precise bottom referenced velocity and/or current pro-  le measurements for ROVs, AUVs, and other manned/unmanned submersibles. For vehicle navigation applications that require a custom  t like the Iver3, RTI provided four individual piston trans- ducers along with compact electronics to facilitate repackaging into the AUV. OceanServer?s AUVs are single man- portable and feature simple point-and-click mission planning. The latest generation of Iver3 AUVs will offer two different RTI DVL units in 600 kHz and 1200 kHz con gura-tions. OceanServer Wins NUWC AUV Contract Tritech?s high-resolution survey sonar is proving a strong tool in search and recovery operations. October 201410 MTRMTR #8 (1-17).indd 10MTR #8 (1-17).indd 1010/13/2014 11:17:16 AM10/13/2014 11:17:16 AM