C & C Technologies Inc. of Lafayette, Louisiana, USA has contracted with us for supply of a second HUGIN deep water Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV).
Specifications The Hugin AUV, rated to 4500-meters water depth, is 5.5 meters long and powered by a state-of-the-art aluminum oxygen fuel cell battery, providing a mission endurance of more than 50 hours before resurfacing. The vehicle will be integrated with the following survey sensors.
- EM 2000 multibeam echo sounder
- Chirp side scan sonar
- Chirp sub-bottom profiler
- Conductivity, temperature depth system
System functionality An acoustic data link will allow sub-sampled sonar data to be viewed in real time. Underwater positioning will be performed using a HiPAP® SSBL (Super Short Base Line) system integrated with Doppler speed log, an Inertial Navigation System, and for surface reference dGPS. Acoustic links for control of the vehicle, reading of sensor data and emergency control is also part of the delivery. The Hugin AUV will initially be rated for 3000 meters, but will be upgraded to 4500 meters in the fall of 2005.
World leader We are proud to be chosen as supplier to C & C Technologies Inc. Today, C & C is the undisputed world leader in commercial deepwater AUV operations with market share in excess of 90 percent. Over the last four years, C & C has completed 68 AUV projects on 4 continents for 33 different clients. Their first Hugin AUV has surveyed more than 36,000 line-km worldwide. By the end of 2004, C & C hopes to have gone 40,000 km, far enough to encircle the globe at equator.