Sea Technology

NOV 2016

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www.sea-technology.com November 2016 / st 23 to getting wet. In addition to being ex- tremely dangerous, these missions are also time consuming and logistically intensive. Assisting military, federal and state government organizations with the dull, dirty and dangerous aspects of the counter-MIED mission is exactly where Saab's Sea Wasp ROV can play an effective role. The Sea Wasp can help reduce the percentage of missions that require putting divers and EOD personnel in the danger zone. Using Sea Wasp's full capabilities, divers will only have to enter the water when ab- solutely necessary. Saab was spurred to develop Sea Wasp when the Department of De- fense's Combatting Terrorism Techni- cal Support Office (CTTSO) issued an urgent call to defense firms in seeking their best technology ideas for getting ahead of the MIED threat. CTTSO was established in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks to develop innovative technologies and concepts rapidly to meet emerging military requirements. Saab engineers undertook a crash 12-month development and integra- tion effort in order to meet CTTSO's strict timeline. The company was able to meet this deadline successfully, and deliver three prototype Sea Wasp ve- hicles to CTTSO for more extensive evaluation and testing, based on nearly a decade's work in the ROV market. Sea Wasp Design Saab unveiled the Sea Wasp in May 2016 at the Navy League's annual Sea- Air-Space Symposium in National Har- bor, Maryland. The groundbreaking new ROV incorporates technologies previously developed for land-based EOD robot vehicles. Saab also lever- aged and integrated technologies from its Seaeye line of commercial ROVs to develop Sea Wasp. Sea Wasp mimics much of what those land EOD devices do—except it can conduct these mis- sions in the more difficult underwater environments. The system requires as few as two persons to operate, and the underwater ROV is lightweight enough to be transported in any type of light support vehicle. Sea Wasp can be launched from shore (harbor walls or beach) and is light and flexible enough to be deployed from a variety of small craft, including rigid-hull inflatable boats (RHIBs), work boats and even specialized surface support vessels. It is piloted using a control console lo- cated aboard a support vessel or from shore using fiber-optic cables tethered to the ROV. Sea Wasp can support a range of dif- ferent sensors, but the prototypes are equipped with a sensor package that includes wideband sonar, very pow- erful LED lights and video cameras. A manipulator arm with five-function ca- pability and an attached camera is an- other attractive feature. Sea Wasp also possesses the ability to self-navigate to preselected three-dimensional way points using the onboard DVL from Nortek and inertial measurement unit (IMU) from KVH, given the specific mission scenario. The vehicle's computer software can further interpret sonar data for ob- stacle avoidance, helpful in dark and turbid harbor waters. But the real keys to Sea Wasp's per- formance are the six powerful thrust- ers integrated aboard the vehicle, and Saab's proprietary iCON intelligent control system technology. The thrust- ers provide very effective station-keep- ing in currents up to 2.5 kt.—which is truly impressive for a vehicle of its size. The power of the thrusters allows the Sea Wasp to remain stationary and provides vehicle stability while shore- based controllers can more thoroughly investigate suspicious objects. It can operate at sea depths of 60 m. The iCON intelligent control sys- tem is the technology linchpin of Sea Wasp, providing 6° of freedom, which is exceptional maneuverability for an ROV of this size. In layman's terms, this means that Sea Wasp can "fly" like an aircraft while submerged and perform underwater maneuvers comparable to "The Sea Wasp can help reduce the percentage of missions that require putting divers and EOD personnel in the danger zone." UNDERWATER LISTENING SYSTEMS Versatile Acoustic Recorders Real-Time Listening Remote Buoys New Noise Processing Features www.rtsys.eu 25 rue Michel Marion 56850 Caudan - France +33 (0)297 898 580 - info@rtsys.eu International Standard and Guideline Compliant (ANSI, MSFD...)

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