The use of autonomous control technology in air, land and sea vehicles is exploding. As costs come down, new autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) applications are becoming limitless. Using AUVs for surveillance and survey operations results in more production work accomplished for far less cost. When compared to conventional operating survey technology, AUV’s reduce vessel size and manpower for operations while the work product or output can actually increase through higher utilization over time.

AUVs are being used in a number of applications including:

– Sea Floor Block Studies

– Geohazard Surveys

– Archaeological Assessment Surveys

– As-Built Surveys

– Pipeline Surveys

– Deepwater Benthic Community Surveys

– Power transmission cable survey

AUVs can carry multiple sensors and even operate some of them simultaneously. Some of the sensors that AUVs can carry include:

– Side scan sonar

– Multibeam bathymetry sonar

– Sub-bottom profiler

– Magnetometer

– Camera mosaicing

– 3-D laser bathymetry