Defense Research and Development Canada Upgrades its AUV

Ocean Floor Geophysics In. (OFG) said it was awarded a contract to deliver and install two Self-Compensating Magnetometer (SCM) systems to the Department of National Defense’s (DND) science and technology organization, Defense Research and Development Canada (DRDC), under the Built in Canada Innovation Program (BCIP).

The systems, which are supplied with a specialized Subsea Processing Unit (SPU), will be installed on a shallow-water IVER Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) and a 5,000m depth-rated ISE Explorer AUV.

The SCM system works by running a simple AUV calibration routine at the beginning of the mission and using it to compute a suite of coefficients that can correct the data in real-time. The software then outputs the raw magnetic vectors and total field as well as the compensated magnetic vectors and total field.

The installation of the SCM inside the AUV, or strapped to the hull simplifies AUV operations in many cases when compared to other AUV magnetometer solutions that require towed bodies, long poles in front of the vehicle or de-gaussed hulls.

Applications for the SCM cover a wide variety of AUV missions ranging from geological mapping, mine-countermeasures, and vessel signatures, to unexploded ordnance (UXO), and marine archaeology.