Wreck-hunting

Traditional methods for target hunting on the seafloor rely heavily on the sidescan sonar. This provides a two dimensional representation of the seafloor highlighting objects of interest. Deep Sea Vision use Synthetic Aperture Sonar with specially developed methods permitting area coverage rates to match traditional sidescan coupled to classification which can exceed by several orders of magnitude. The balancing act played by human sonar operators and their interpretation is removed using this technology delivering confidence to any client.

Synthetic Aperture Sonar

When searching for small debris at decimetre level full SAS is the ideal solution. Becoming available to the commercial sector in the last decade this sonar capability extends to clients who have the most stringent requirements. Curation of any wreck site or to locate archaeological wrecks where deterioration could have been extensive, SAS gives the greatest chance of success. HISAS provides the abilty to discern discrete 3-5cm targets ensuring nothing is missed.

Wide Area Mode

Developed as a collaboration with Kongsberg Discovery the wide area mode used by Deep Sea Vision is a revolutionary approach to wreck hunting. Using the synthetic sonar at ranges equalling that of traditional sidescan gives a like for like area coverage rate but the target classification is transformed. Using undersampled processing techniques resolution can be one order of magnitude greater than a sidescan equivalent. Where a second or third investigation would have been traditionally necessary. Deep Sea Vision require only a single pass at any target for conclusive definition.

Gap fill with Dual Swath Multibeam

In order to cover the whole sea floor with a sidescan would required a neighbouring pass to cover the nadir gap. This is the blind area below any sidescan sonar and results in a 30% loss in efficiency. Deep Sea Vision AUV's are the only vehicles in the world to employ dual swath on the EM2040 doubling the datadensity of the blind gap. This allows comparable detections of the Synthetic Aperture Sonar instantly delivering a 30% gain on acquisition efficiencies.

Target Classfiication

On many wrecks of course Synthetic Aperture Sonar provides the clarity to conclusively define any target in question but in some cases further payloads need to be employed. It may be the 4K colour camera to give the image of known markings on an aircraft or perhaps a magnetometer to verify the presence of a boiler on a wooden craft, Deep Sea Vision AUV house all sensors to make this possible.

Deep Sea Minerals

Appreciation of deep sea mineral deposits is increasingly important to our worlds oceans. Understanding where minerals lie and their volume is crucial to ensure the absolute minimum invasion is employed by recovery groups. Using Deep Sea Visions finely tuned sonar modes are only available on their vehicles

AUV for location and volume determination

Whilst imagery of minerals from ROV can give some insight into the volume the speed of the vehicle means area coverage is very slow and requires intensive human control. AUV will travel at typically 4 times ROV velocity covering far more ground and fully automated.

Multispectral frequency selection for classification

Perhaps more distubring is the the volume below the surface which requiress intrusive grab samples. Different frequencies of sound will see different layers in the sediment. Using carefully selected frequencies the HUGIN AUV with Deep Sea Vision tuning can see below the surface sediment in soanr revealing the minerals often not exposed on the surface. Both the HISAS for inital coverage and lattery using multispectral data on the EM2040 a thourough understanding can be delivered without disturbance. Revealing the true volume of minerals without any invasive operations is crucial to understanding any potential environmental impact.

Imagery for habitat control

Our UHD camera and strobe solution works at heights of 2 to 10 metres and at speeds of more than 5 knots. The true colours allow greater insight into the seafloor characterisation. All calibrated the dense 120,000 laser points per seconds give a microbathymetry map of the seabed all synchrnisde in space and time.

Government Support

Deep Sea Vision personnel originate from NATO countries with strong ties to governing bodies. Experience in a wide range of subject matter from lost assets to seabed warfare programs their fast response low logistics AUV systems can support in any situation.

Subsea Infrastructure monitoring

Maintaining local seabed infrastructure is critical to modern nations. Whether the integrity of communications cables or energy routes both need constant monitoring for asset integrity.

Emergency responce for target location

With the ability to tune on board sonar to listen for emergency acoustic frequencies Deep Sea Visions AUV system can be used for fast response and to locate targets of interest quickly.

Over the horizon operations

Conducted from the beach or a remote platform, Deep Sea Visions AUV endurance and navigation systems permit remove the human from the field. Operations can be completed remotely even 100's of Km’s from the area of interest.

Deep Sea Cable and Pipe Route Surveys

Sensors on pipelines or surface cables typically require close proximity flying of a few metres hence decimetre level relative positioning is a necessity. Tracking algorithms employing multiple payloads on the Deep Sea Vision AUV allow the vehicle to maintain position above the asset even at 6 knot velocities where by a remotely vehicles may struggle at even 1 knot. The efficiency gains through reduced risk from human control is easily understood but when coupled to the low noise platform the final deliverable is truly an order of magnitude beyond. Deep Sea Vision AUV are the only way to efficiently perform pre and post lay route surveys.

Pre-Lay

The spread of any route traditionally require numerous passes with multibeam echosounder to establish bathymetry. Additional sidescan and Sub Bottom Profiler data for surface and subsea geology requirements demand an exhaustive number of passes. Using Synthetic Aperture Bathymetry the Multibeam requirement can be relaxed and reduces the number of passes. Deep Sea Vision can reduce any pre lay survey duration by a minimum 40% using technology to solve the problem and not time.

Post-Lay

Data on post lay survey with Deep Sea Vision AUV provides the highest resolution bathymetry solution with the most advanced Synthetic Aperture Imagery. Freespan can be clearly established and when in burial the tracking engine can predict the route making optimal decisions on the path to continue surveying. Autonomy with Deep Sea Vision is all about removing the human.

Depth of Burial

As with any route and with an asset in burial either through intention or through sediment transfer the establishment of depth is critical. The Deep Sea Vision AUV contains a magnetometer coupled to sub bottom profiler can establish pipeline depth. On smaller or non ferrous assets the AUV can house self potential sensors to help classify.

Habitat Mapping

Appreciating the threats to our Oceans is critical to our worlds future. Deep Sea Vision operate only non-invasive technologies to read the seafloor and pose no risk to the habitat or organisms within. Our goal is to provide a clear tool for clients to to study the environment and any changes to it. Different organisms prefer different seafloors and our system allows a classification.

Multispectral Data

Using the multibeam echosounder Deep Sea Vision can run “Ping Hopping” with frequencies to better interpret the seabed. Akin to multispectral satellite imagery the frequency response to acoustics on the seafloor in non-linear and can provide valuable insight to seafloor habitats. Deep sea Vision have the ability to tune the sonars to a clients given frequencies and better optimise results from any given area.

Environmental Sensors

Running with swappable sensors on the vehicle users have a plethora of environmental sensors to choose from. Temperature, Sound velocities and conductivities or dissolved oxygen through to a wide selection of fluorometers and crude oils the researcher can accurately map any environment. All data is available georeferenced with depth and time from the high accuracy navigation system and allows extremely tight temporal and spatial control not available on sea gliders.

Camera

Whilst sonar and environmental sensors give a superb representation ultimately clients like visual classification to cross correlate. The UHD CathX colour camera provides the best available deep sea imagery of seafloor environments and gives research groups valuable ground truth when cross checking other sensor data.

Bathymetric Mapping and Seabed

The standard output from AUV has been to map the seafloor and the most basic form is depth from a multibeam echosounder. The EM0240 multibeam on HUGIN is the current market leader but as with any downward looking solution there is a limitation to coverage ergo efficiency. With Synthetic Aperture bathymetry, HUGIN coverage rates are more than doubled with no loss in performance. Only becoming available in late 2024 Deep Sea Vision have been an early adopter of this technology and are delivering projects where the SAS bathymetry is a main deliverable.

EM2040

An industry standard when considering mapping. This echosounder has all options from Ping hopping to dual swath with the highest resolutions on the market. Water Column logging, multiple detections, yaw and pitch stabilisation are all standard proven solutions on this sonar.

HISAS Bathyemtry

Unfortunately often confused with low end interferometers the HISAS bathymetry provides clean wide swath data and removes the phase ambiguities typically associated with these sonars. Using the upper and lower sonar imagery the bathymetry can be calculated from this relationship and provides range independent resolution approximating 20cm at even 200 metres range. This gives coverage rates that compete even in the mid water depth market but by giving resolution perhaps 2 orders of magnitude greater.