Exail, a specialist in underwater drone methods, has signed a contract with the DGA (the French protection procurement company) for the rental of an AUV (autonomous underwater car), the A18D, for the French Navy. The contract is predicted to final roughly two years and contains tutorial and operational coaching for 12 sailors. The A18D is designed to carry out missions at depths of as much as 3000m for mapping, sonar imaging and high-resolution inspection of pipelines and cables. Able to finishing up its missions in complete autonomy throughout 24 hours, it might attain a pace of 6 knots and perform as much as 40 km² of imaging per mission. The French Navy will use this autonomous multi-sensor car to conduct experimentations with a view to defining its future wants, with the DGA’s technical help, as a part of the French ministry for armed forces’ technique to know and monitor seabeds.
The AUV might be launched into a number of forms of ship. The AUV, which may be very versatile and straightforward to put in due to its compact design, can be delivered with a software program suite to handle missions, and recuperate and analyze the information obtained. A command-control container will even be put in on board the mom ship, offering operators with a devoted and sheltered house from which to command and management the drone. Lastly, the GAPS transportable USBL system produced by Exail will allow extraordinarily correct positioning of the recorded knowledge even at a depth of 3000m. Exail has designed and developed an autonomous underwater drone, Ulyx, for IFREMER, which may discover the seabed at depths of as much as 6000m. The Ulyx is presently within the qualification part and has already reached a depth of 4500m. Exail, a reference within the discipline of underwater robotics for over 40 years, affords operational and environment friendly options to fulfill the wants and ambitions of France in what’s an space of sovereignty, the seabed.
Commercial
Dominique Giannoni, CEO of Exail, is delighted with this contract: “We’re proud to take part on this seabed program and to place all of Exail’s know-how and the know-how of our groups on the service of France’s ambitions on this space of sovereignty.”
The AUV A18D and its onboard sensors will permit the French Navy to:
– Detect and establish objects due to a excessive decision sonar SAS (Artificial Aperture Sonar)
– Chart the type of the seabed utilizing an MBES (multi-beam echo sounder) bathymetric sonar
– Characterize the character of the seabed due to an SBP (sub-bottom profiler) sonar and a video digital camera
Assist is an important facet of this turnkey supply; the theoretical and operational coaching offered by Exail’s consultants will make crews autonomous within the deployment and operation of the AUV, in addition to within the restoration and processing/post-processing of the information obtained. That is the explanation behind the ministry for armed forces unveiling its seabed technique final February. Observing and monitoring what is going on within the deep ocean has turn into an actual necessity to make sure the safety of nationwide pursuits. It’s inside this framework that the contract has been awarded. It follows on from an preliminary operational analysis marketing campaign of Exail’s A18D performed final yr by the French Navy and the Naval Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service (SHOM).
