The two-year, £1.4 million Precise Positioning for Persistent Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (P3AUV) project, part funded by Innovate UK, set out to integrate existing and emerging technologies to deliver a step-change in unmanned platform endurance and navigational precision. In addition, the project also set out to increase the use of autonomy in offshore survey positioning operations using unmanned surface vessels (USVs), and in the process reducing risk to personnel, environmental impact and operating costs. The final project trials, which also saw one of the NOC's largest deployment of AUVs operating in swarms, were completed today (December 4) in Loch Ness, Scotland. The project involved developing and integrating each organization's technologies, including Sonardyne's SPRINT-Nav navigation instrument, to prove it's possible for underwater platforms to make more of their available onboard power and maintain navigational accuracy over long distances without external aiding. The project also proved the capability to autonomously calibrate networks of seafloor positioning transponders with a C-Worker USV to make offshore survey and construction operations faster and easier.
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