Reykjavik, Iceland, April, 2018: Teledyne Gavia, manufacturer of the Gavia Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV/ASV), announces the integration of Marine Magnetics’ Explorer AUV/ASV magnetometer.
Underwater survey work is frequently carried out using autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs/ASVs). The benefits of using AUVs/ASVs are that they are programmed to carry out missions without intervention, can fly at consistent low altitudes to achieve high resolution measurements, and are not as sensitive to surface conditions as a tethered system.
AUVs/ASVs can be equipped with a wide range of sensors, including side-scan sonar, multi-beam echo sounders, sub-bottom profilers and cameras. Magnetometer surveys are conducted routinely in mining and petroleum resource exploration, archaeological surveys, and for detecting and locating pipelines and other seabed or buried ferrometallic objects.
Magnetometers have always been a particular challenge to mount on AUVs, because of their strong magnetic signatures and strict power budgets, until now. Towing the Explorer AUV/ASV Magnetometer behind the AUV/ASV solves this challenge due it its small size, low drag and 2 watt power requirement.
During the week of February 11th to February 17th, 2018, Teledyne Gavia and Marine Magnetics carried out a trial with the Gavia AUV/ASV towing the Explorer AUV/ASV Mag. This trial showed that the magnetometer can detect targets weighing as little as 1kg.