Each of C & C Technologies, Inc.’s three AUVs is powered by an aluminum oxygen fuel cell with ni-cad back up batteries. With the fuel cell power source, the AUV can travel at four knots for at least 50 hours with all sensors running.

The C-Surveyor I is rated for 3,000 meters. C-Surveyors II and III are rated for 4,500 meters.

The AUV has many safety devices that allow it to surface when a significant problem arises. Various triggers are linked to two drop weights and an air bladder.

Survey lines and sensor settings can be preprogrammed into the AUV. Lines can be aborted and the survey program can be altered via the acoustic telemetry link while the survey is underway. Most of the settings for the survey sensors can also be remotely controlled via the link.

Multibeam, sidescan, subbottom and positioning data are recorded in the AUV. Decimated data from these sensors is transmitted from the AUV to the ship. This allows real time quality assurance of the data and real time feedback on the bottom conditions.

Positioning of the data is done using HiPAP USBL, the inertial navigation system and the Doppler velocity log integrated in a Kalman filter.

In the more autonomous mode, the QA data is not transmitted and positioning is accomplished by using the inertial navigation system and the Doppler velocity log with the Kalman filter.

Survey sensors include the following: 200 kHz multibeam bathymetry and imagery, dual frequency sidescan (120 and 410 kHz) and subbottom profiler (2-10 kHz), CTD.

Other ancillary sensors include the following: HiPAP USBL, inertial navigation system, doppler velocity log, fiber optic gyro, high and low speed acoustic links, DGPS and UHF radio (surface).

Contact Jay Northcutt for more information.