The plot here shows a three hour mission at 100m with SVP data acquired throughout with a down-cast and up-cast at the start and finish of the mission clearly showing the depth of the thermocline.   A complete SVP profile can be sent in a single Iridium SBD message due to some clever compression techniques.
Click here for details

ecoSUB, has been successfully trialled in the North Sea off Orkney during a marine robot demonstrator mission co-ordinated by the National Oceanography Centre (NOC).

ecoSUB is a new type of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) developed by Planet Ocean in partnership with the NOC. The vehicles are around 0.5 metres in length and weigh only 4 kg, and are therefore classified as ‘micro-AUVs’. Despite their small size, they are capable of diving to 500 m (2500m for ecoSUB-m25) and have sufficient battery power to stay underwater for several hours.

Two of the new ecoSUB-µ5-SVP vehicles were deployed from the Royal Navy’s HMS Enterprise during the trial and successfully collected Sound velocity profile data to depths of 100 m. These data will be compared with those collected by traditional ‘over-the-side’ instruments deployed from the ship, allowing the Royal Navy and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) to assess the benefits of this new robotic technology.

Whilst the subs were deployed and recovered by the RN, initially the vehicles were piloted by our senior software engineer Jérémy Sitbon on board the Enterprise, but following his departure, further deployments were undertaken from Enterprise with piloting done remotely from NOC over the Iridium satellite.

Terry Sloane, Managing Director of Planet Ocean, said: “Micro-AUVs are low cost and highly flexible platforms with the potential to transform data collection across the maritime sector. This demonstrator mission provided a fantastic opportunity for us to deploy ecoSUBs from a Royal Navy vessel in challenging conditions, and we are delighted at the quality of data obtained and the ease with which the vehicles were released and recovered.”
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The ecoSUB-µ5-SVP carries a Valeport time of flight sound velocity sensor which is ideally suited for use on the ecoSUB vehicle.  A unique feature of ecoSUB-µ5 is its ability to dive almost vertically, in a spiral with a very small footprint, allowing water column profiles to be captured.  Traditional AUVs and gliders have relatively shallow dive angles which means that they need to travel horizontally some distance whilst acquiring data.

Two fully operational ecoSUBu AUVs were out on show at Oceans-17 in Aberdeen last week on the Planet Ocean stand.  The ecoSUB AUVs attracted a lot of interest from the attending science community, with many discussions about the role a small, low cost AUV could play in ocean research.

Dr Alex Phillips, Head of Marine Autonomous Systems Development at National Oceanography Centre (NOC) and ecoSUB Technical Lead  also presented an excellent and well received paper on the design and development of ecoSUB and highlighted some of the novel and innovative launch and recovery systems working with ecoSUB.

A PDF information sheet is available for download, providing background and info on the new ecoSUB AUVs.

Click here to download.

Our new ecoSUB Robotics Limited website is now live, providing information about the exciting new Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) technology being developed in partnership with the Marine Autonomous Robotics Systems (MARS) group at National Oceanography Centre (NOC), Southampton.

ecoSUB AUVs are small, affordable platforms designed to increase accessibility to autonomous systems in the marine environment.  The technology has benefited from both the expertise of NOC engineers, and also the robust engagement of end users like marine scientists, defence users and oil & gas operators.

We will keep the website up to date with progress made and will start to provide more information about the capabilities of both ecoSUBµ and ecoSUBm.

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