Page 27: of Marine Technology Magazine (March 2021)

All images courtesy International Submarine Engineering he atmosphere on the bridge of ISE’s vessel Research- er is tense. All mission checks are complete; condi-

MARINE tions are optimum for docking; everything looks good.

TECHNOLOGY

The vehicle, a 5-meter-long Autonomous Underwater

TV

T Vehicle (or AUV), is on mission underwater. Updates

Watch the video @ bit.ly/2QdBJdy from the AUV are now limited to acoustic chirps every 30 seconds and everyone is waiting anxiously. Will it succeed?

Whenever an AUV is sent underwater to test new systems it is an exciting time, and for the ISE team onboard Researcher this feeling is nothing new. On this occasion, they were test- ing the results of their year-long autonomous docking de- velopment. The project, funded by Canadian Innovation for

Defence Excellence and Security (IDEaS), used both vision and acoustic-based systems to locate, track, and home in on a towed docking station. In this article we will explain the bene? ts and challenges and how ISE overcame them, as well as looking at the next steps for this project.

THE BENEFITS

AUVs are incredible platforms for collecting subsea data without human intervention. One of their drawbacks, howev- er, is that they still need a support ship to recover them for data download and battery charging. AUVs, like ISE’s Explorer, are on the larger side to allow for longer duration and the in- tegration of higher quality and power-hungry sonar systems.

This can make the proposition of recovery even more daunt- ing in heavy seas. It is an added risk for the operators, the operation and the AUV itself. With the ability to dock subsea, mission duration can be increased by allowing operators to re- charge and retask the AUV without having to risk potentially dangerous recoveries.

Computer generated image of the AUV and the dock subsea www.marinetechnologynews.com 27

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