Louisiana's C&C Technologies Inc. is building its second Surveyor Class autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). The company recently ordered critical components from Kongsberg Maritime that will be used to build the C-Surveyor II, which is expected to be available for hydrographic surveys in April 2005.
Louisiana's C&C Technologies Inc. is building its second Surveyor Class autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). The company recently ordered critical components from Kongsberg Maritime that will be used to build the C-Surveyor II, which is expected to be available for hydrographic surveys in April 2005.
The C-Surveyor II is modeled after C&C's existing C-Surveyor I. Sensors will include a multibeam echosounder, chirp side scan sonar, chirp sub-bottom profiler, and a CTD system. The AUV will be positioned using ultra-short-baseline acoustics integrated with inertial measuring unit and a Doppler velocity log. A fuel cell will provide 45 kWh of energy making the AUB operational for 50 hr at 3.8 knots with all sensors operating. An acoustic data link will allow sub-sampled sonar data to be viewed in real time. The C-Surveyor II AUV will be rated for 3,000 m, but will be upgraded to 4,500 m in the fall of 2005.
"Our clients have requested our AUV expertise in several regions of the world," says Thomas Chance, president of C&C. "The C-Surveyor II AUV will enable C&C to more effectively service the needs of our clients, while decreasing mobilization costs on international projects"
