Sea Technology

MAR 2015

The industry's recognized authority for design, engineering and application of equipment and services in the global ocean community

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www.sea-technology.com March 2015 / st 57 M3 Bathy System Now IHO S-44 Compliant Kongsberg Mesotech's (Port Co- quitlam, Canada) M3 Bathy System, a powerful, entry-level survey system for shallow-water bathymetric appli- cations, is now offcially designated compliant with IHO S-44, a reference standard for companies engaged in hy- drographic surveying, marine engineer- ing or nautical charting. The IHO compliance consists of various criteria, including vertical ac- curacy and target detection standards. In order to assess IHO-S44 compli- ance, these criteria were tested during an experiment performed by the Ocean Mapping Group at the University of New Brunswick. During the testing, which took place in February 2014, bathymetry data from the M3 were collected in depths ranging from 15 to 40 meters. The test targets were a series of standard con- crete 1-meter cubes laid along 20- and 40-meter contours. The results con- frmed that the M3 Bathy is capable of achieving bathymetric survey data that meets two orders of IHO standards, spe- cifcally: vertical accuracy compliance over the full +/-60° sector for Order 1 surveys and to at least +/-55° for Special Order, and Special Order target detec- tion (1-meter cube) met to 20 meters and Order 1A target detection (2-meter cube) maintained to 40 meters. The M3 sonar is the only instru- ment in its price point that produces high-quality imaging records and 3D profling point cloud data using the same sonar head. It provides high-res- olution and easy-to-interpret images by combining the rapid refresh rate of conventional multibeam sonar with im- age quality comparable to that from a single-beam sonar system. ACTUV Prototype Completes Successful Voyage Leidos's (Reston, Virginia) proto- type maritime autonomy system for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA's) Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) program completed its frst self-guided voyage between Gulf- port and Pascagoula, Mississippi. The prototype maritime autonomy system was installed on a 42-foot work boat that served as a surrogate vessel to test sensor, maneuvering and mission functions of the prototype ACTUV ves- sel. ACTUV seeks to develop an inde- pendently deployed, unmanned naval vessel that would operate under sparse remote supervisory control and safely follow the collision avoidance "rules of the sea" known as COLREGS. Controlled only by the autonomy system, and with only a navigational chart of the area loaded into its memory and inputs from its commercial-off-the- shelf (COTS) radars, the surrogate vessel sailed the complicated inshore environ- ment of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. During its voyage of 35 nautical miles, the maritime autonomy system func- tioned as designed. The boat avoided all obstacles, buoys, land, shoal water, and other vessels in the area without any preplanned waypoints or human intervention. While Leidos continues to use the surrogate vessel to test ACTUV software and sensors, the company is continuing construction of Sea Hunter, the frst AC- TUV prototype vessel, in Clackamas, Oregon. Sea Hunter is scheduled to launch in late fall 2015 and begin test- ing in the Columbia River thereafter. n CLS AMERICA OVER 35 YEARS OF SUPERIOR, RELIABLE SERVICES A GLOBAL PROVIDER OF ENVIRONMENTAL DATA COLLECTION, LOCATION, MONITORING AND OCEAN OBSERVATION SERVICES USING ARGOS AND IRIDIUM WWW.CLSAMERICA.COM CLS America, Inc., 4300 Forbes Boulevard, Lanham, MD 20706, U.S.A. TEL: 301-925-4411

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