Tech Files

New Products, Systems and Solutions

Micro-Ranger 2
Photo by Tom Acton/Sonardyne.

Portable, Shallow-water Tracking System

Sonardyne launched a new, portable configuration of its shallow water Ultra-Short BaseLine (USBL) system Micro-Ranger 2. Everything needed to start tracking divers, remotely operated vehicles, autonomous underwater vehicles or any other subsea targets is contained in a single, IP67-rated ruggedized case.The one-box USBL solution is able to track up to 10 targets out to 995 m. Inside the case is a Micro-Ranger Transceiver (MRT) with 10 m of cable, a GNSS antenna with 5 m of cable, and two Nano transponders and command hub. A built-in battery provides more than 10 hours of continuous use, enough for a full day of activity out on the water. The case can also accept external power from a boat or shore supply.

www.Sonardyne.com

Falcon inspecting bridge supports at Lake Vouglans.

Photo courtesy Saab Seaeye

Falcon deployed for Bridge, Dam Inspection

French dams and bridges inspection specialist, IDCBTP, selected a Saab Seaeye Falcon for detailed infrastructure examination. “We chose the Saab Seaeye Falcon because it's a reliable system that’s simple to use and to upgrade,” said Clément Chaudouet of IDCBTP. “It's also a stable system, which is very important to us as we need perfect control of the ROV during a dam inspection.”For a clear and accurate analysis of the condition of the structures, IDCBTP’s Falcon is fitted with a range of systems including lasers, multibeam sonar, profiler sonar and navigation and positioning systems. Precision data collected in this way can identify repairs needed, help maintenance planning and spot trends in structure condition. Two structures under inspection are the bridge supports for the Pont de la Pyle at Lake Vouglans and the upstream face of the dam structure of the Barrage de Thurins at Rhône.

www.SaabSeaeye.com
Image courtesy Storm Geomatics/Ocean Alpha.

SL40 for Wide Swath Bathymetric River Survey

In early spring 2021 Storm Geomatics was asked to carry out topographic and bathymetric surveys on the River Aire, at the village of Newlay, northwest of Leeds, Yorkshire in the UK. In the extremely shallow river the system supplied by THURN Group, compromising of the Ocean Alpha SL40 Unmanned Survey Vessel (USV) equipped with a Geoswath4 Interferometic Sonar and SBG Ekinox IMU, enabled Storm Geomatics to carry out a full bathymetric survey efficiently and safely in a difficult to access and fast-flowing section of the river Aire.

The 250m stretch of the River Aire surveyed comprised of Newlay Weir, the riverbanks, foreshore, and flood defences and was surveyed with no issues due to the USV’s shallow draft and the Geoswath interferometric sonar’s wide swath, which was able to efficiently survey the river bank-to-bank.

A topographic survey was also completed to establish the geometry of the riverbank, foreshore, flood embankments, walls and ground behind the defenses. For this part of the work Storm used a combination of the SL40 USV and traditional survey techniques, with a total station capturing a 2m grid and the use of a Trimble SX10 laser scanner. The overlapping parts of the manual and USV surveys were then cross-checked in GIS.

www.oceanalpha.com

ENC Bathymetry Plotter User Interface.

This image, courtesy SevenCs, was created from data provided by courtesy of NOAA.

SevenCs Upgrades ENC Production

SevenCs' new release of ENC Bathymetry Plotter, has been designed to assist Hydrographic Offices in the production of nautical charts. A key feature of the new software is the improvements in the generation of ENC contours and in selecting soundings, designed to reduce the manual workload required to develop ENCs. The contouring process is based on a shoal-biased Nautical Elevation Model. It creates contour lines that ENC Bathymetry Plotter has been developed from scratch and runs on an entirely new architecture, using a completely renewed source code. The new software integrates a variety of significant functional extensions, modifications, and many improvements.

www.sevencs.com

The CZMIL SuperNova combines the bathymetric lidar experience of Teledyne Optech with the processing software from Teledyne CARIS to provide optimized geospatial solutions.

Photo courtesy CZMIL

CZMIL SuperNova: A full Geographical Bathymetric Lidar Solution

Teledyne Optech delivered its next-gen bathymetric lidar CZMIL SuperNova to Terratec AS of Norway, the first private company to acquire the CZMIL SuperNova and the only company in the EU to engage in work around environmental change and coastal zone mapping using the CZMIL SuperNova. CZMIL SuperNova also introduces Smart Spacing technology to enhance efficient point spacing across the swath, onboard processing capability for reduced post-processing and three configurable modes for maximizing performance in different marine environments.As a complete geospatial solution, CZMIL SuperNova has integrated software from Teledyne CARIS to provide seamless integration for processing and deliverables. The complete CARIS Ping-to-Chart workflow allows for a myriad of deliverables that go far beyond the point cloud.

www.teledyneoptech.com
Photo courtesy Kongsberg Maritime

Kongsberg Maritime Signs on to help fast-track Seabed 2030 Project

The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project and Kongsberg Maritime entered a Memorandum of Understanding in support of the global initiative to produce the complete map of the ocean floor.

Seabed 2030 is a collaborative project between The Nippon Foundation and GEBCO to inspire the complete mapping of the world's ocean by 2030, and to compile all bathymetric data into the freely available GEBCO Ocean Map. GEBCO is a joint project of the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), and is the only organisation with a mandate to map the entire ocean floor.All data collected and shared with the Seabed 2030 Project is included in the GEBCO global grid, which is free and publicly available.

www.seabed2030.org

The dual screen set up of EOD Workspace Simulator. Operator view is on the left, supervisor view on the right.

Photo courtesy Greensea

Greensea Launches EOD Workspace Simulator

Greensea Systems, creator of EOD Workspace, the software and control solution for military EOD operations, has launched EOD Workspace Simulator. The new simulator, created in partnership with GRi Simulations, incorporates a physics engine based on actual subsea vehicle models which provides the realism needed to prepare operators, technicians, and other subject matter experts to be successful in critical real-world subsea environments when using EOD Workspace in the field. EOD Workspace Simulator will be offered for sale to military groups actively using EOD Workspace.

www.greensea.com
Image copyright ERELIS

Bathymetric Survey via Drone

Israeli drone service provider ERELIS recently conducted a number of pilot projects using a drone equipped with a single-beam echo sounder in the Mediterranean and Dead Seas. The data was validated by authorized local surveyors and reports from previous surveys of the same areas by “Michmoret Campus - Faculty of Marine Sciences”. The “reference” bathymetric data was collected using a manned boat and multi-beam and single-beam echo sounders and demonstrated a good match between the results of new drone-based and traditional methods.

The bathymetric system consisted of a standard commercial DJI drone (UgCSSkyHub onboard computer and terrain following system with radar altimeter) and Echologger ECT400 single-beam echo sounder provided by SPH Engineering, Latvia. For data processing, the Eye4Software Hydromagic software package was employed.

“I was surprised by the maneuverability of the system and how easy it is to conduct bathymetric surveys using a UAV equipped with an echo sounder. Some of our survey areas were 400-500m away from take-off/landing positions and that means that the term “remote sensing” comes to the world of hydrography and becomes available to any drone service companies,” Roman Kirsanov, CEO of ERELIS, comments.

August 2021