The industry's recognized authority for design, engineering and application of equipment and services in the global ocean community
Issue link: http://sea-technology.epubxp.com/i/344822
www.sea-technology.com July 2014 / st 15 long vehicle weighed 1,600 pounds and was capable of reaching speeds greater than 4 knots. It could operate at 3 knots for approximately 20 hours with standard payload, and was equipped with feld-swappable batteries and so- phisticated survey acoustic and optical payloads for highly effcient operations and performance capabilities. Artemis was most recently deployed in the Indian Ocean in search for wreckage of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370, which had 239 people on board when it went missing in March. Artemis was tasked with imaging a large, focused search area up to 5,000 meters deep. Since the vehicle would be operating at depths of 4,500 meters up to 20 hours at a time in demanding operational conditions, the most rugged connectivity solutions were necessary. BIRNS created custom connectors and cable assemblies with 48-inch leads for a wide range of systems on the free-fooded design, whose titanium main electron- ics housing measured approximately 20 inches in outside diameter and approximately 16 inches in inside diameter, resulting in tight tolerances for its cable assemblies. Functions met by the Connectors Artemis used a variety of con- nectors in a range of pin and cable confgurations. The most critical pieces of connector S ubsea connector technology has advanced apace with the increase in the use of sophisticated new vehicles to explore the ocean. Connector systems for these innovative submersibles can now provide faster, more accurate com- munication, increased options in power and signal, and en- hanced performance capabilities for sensors, cameras and sonar. As today's underwater vehicles are also becoming more compact and powerful, so too are the connectors serv- ing as conduits for their wide ranges of complex systems. As an example of such synergy, BIRNS, Inc. (Oxnard, California) was asked by Bluefn Robotics (Quincy, Massa- chusetts) to develop 12 deep-submergence custom cable as- semblies with BIRNS Millennium electrical connectors. The cable assemblies were for its new 4,500-meter-rated Blue- fn-21 AUV. This Bluefn vehicle was custom confgured for marine services contractor Phoenix International Holdings, Inc. (Largo, Maryland). Phoenix needed an air-shippable AUV with a small onboard footprint capable of seamless mobilization on vessels of opportunity. Delivered in 2013, the AUV provided highly accurate, high-resolution seafoor imagery for a range of Phoenix customer requirements, from subsea research and offshore applications to military and archaeological investigations. In late 2013, Phoenix used the AUV, called Artemis, on a successful mission to fnd a U.S. Air Force F-15 plane lost at a depth of 3,000 meters off the shore of Okinawa, Japan. The highly modular 17.2-foot- Deep-Submergence Electrical Connectors For 4,500-Meter-Rated AUV BIRNS Develops Cable Assemblies for High-Pressure Environments By Amy Brown (Left) Six BIRNS Millennium fanged receptacles (FRs) with fve 16-AWG pins and eight 20- AWG pins. (Right) Oil-flled cable assembly with an advanced oil-flled adapter integrating double-ferrule hydraulic fttings with a BIRNS Millennium 3O cable plug (CP).