Hydrographic Edition July 2018

The implementation of autonomous technology in hydrography has seen steady evolution for 20+ years. The initial developments focused on deploying large diameter (0.5 to 1m) vehicles (AUV’s) at great depths. AUV’s have quickly proven to be cost-effective solutions for obtaining high resolution bathymetry, imagery and photographic images in environments where preceding technology fell short. The most recent innovation surge is focusing on autonomous surface vessels (ASV’s) where organizations have found great gains to be made by removing personnel from the vessel altogether. Since 1997, QPS has provided options for the user to minimize the interactions with the surveyor and the system by automating key functionality. The combination of QINSy’s automation and Qimera’s data processing innovations (Wilson et al., 2018) provides a tightly integrated solution for organizations to embark on this new era of Hydrography.

In April 2017, CARIS Onboard™ Product Manager, Travis Hamilton, was onsite with the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) to conduct a CARIS Onboard installation and trial. JAMSTEC is an organization committed to supporting ocean research and development activities which covers a broad spectrum of marine science and technology. With several institutions located across the country, their mandate is to contribute to the creation of a holistic understanding of global concepts surrounding the ocean.

With tidal ranges up to 14m and extremely high sediment loads Bristol Port was an ideal location to test Valeport’s new SWiFTplus profiler with an integrated optical sensor, in this particular case turbidity.