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Vehicle
MARUM SEAL is a classic torpedo-shaped AUV consisting of 3 main components - central pressure housing and flooded forward- and aft-section. The aluminium pressure housing itself consisting of 4 separate sections, mounted together by O-ring seals and large fairings enabling an evacuated pressure housing, finally. This pressure housing is the main buoyancy element for the AUV. In addition, batteries, AUV controll, AUV payload control and the inertial navigation system are integrated in the pressure housing, as well.
The flooded AUV nose- and aft-section is built of glas-reinforced plastics (GRP), acting as interoperable payload bay, which could be elongated by additional compartments, easily.
The flooded AUV nose- and aft-section is built of glas-reinforced plastics (GRP), acting as interoperable payload bay, which could be elongated by additional compartments, easily.
Vehicle Specifications
| Type | International Submarine Engineering, I.S.E., Vancouver, Canada EXPLORER CLASS, SN: 4 |
| Depth rating | 5000 m |
| Size (L x D) | 5.5 m x 0.74 m |
| Weight | 1,300 kg |
| Battery Capacity | 15.6 kWh, Li-Ion Cells, dry, 48 Volt nominal |
| Propulsion | Brushless DC motor, 48V/32A, pressure compensated, gear-box (3:1), 2-bladed propellor, max. 300 rpm |
| Speed | 0.6 - 2.4 m/sec (min/max) 1.5 m/sec (standard) |
| Control | 3 x control planes (aft) 2 x control planes (bow) / detachable (optinal) each plane is driven by an electric motor, pressure-compensated, position controlled by a Hall sensor |
| Turning diameter | 24 m |
| Dive mode options | Dive by Pitch (steep, fast) Dive by Heave (horizontally, slow, only forward planes) Mission control by Depth Mission control by Altitude |
| Telemetry | 100 mbit Ethernet (LAN-Port, at Deck) 450 kb/s Ethernet-Modem, Data-Link-Group, 2.4 GHz, (LAN, at sea surface) 12 kHz acoustic underwater modem / SERCEL MATS 200 (200 bps) IRIDIUM, Satellite-modem, 9522A, Daytona NOVATECH radio beacon, RF700AR, 156.125 MHz Differential GPS IXBLUE Posidonia, MT861S/Remote Head |
AUV Layout
Aft pressure hull section with connector ports.
Fibre-optic inertial navigation system IXBLUE PHINS.
AUV Vehicle-Control-Computer (VCC), cPCI industrial PC stack.
AUV Navigation / Sensors
| GPS | Differential GPS, Sound Ocean Systems, GPSR-X6015G |
| Inertial Navigation System | IXBLUE PHINS (dry, serial, pressure housing) |
| Pressure sensor 1 | Paro-Scientific 8B7000-I |
| Pressure sensor 2 | SBE-49 / SEABIRD FastCat CTD |
| Altimeter / Speed | Teledyne RDI DVL 300 kHz |
| Obstacle avoidance | Kongsberg, Altimeter, 675 kHz (nose) |
| CTD | SBE-49 / SEABIRD FastCat |
Scientific Payload
| Side-Scan-Sonar (SSS) | Benthos, SIS 1624, 2 Frequency (100 kHz, 390 kHz) |
| Multi-Beam-Sonar (MBES) | RESON 7125-B, AUV-version, Single Freq. 400 kHz |
| Sub-Bottom-Profiling (SBP) | IXBLUE ECHOES 5000, 3-transducer array, CHIRP mode, 0.8 - 15 kHz |
Portside acoustic array of Benthos SIS 1624 side-scan-sonar.
400 kHz transceive-array of RESON 7125 MBES.
Electronic housing and transceiver array of IXBLUE ECHOES 5000 SBP.
RAW-data of AUV side-scan mission in 80 m distance to seafloor (noise pattern due to free floating DVL pings).
RAW-data of AUV multi-beam mission; recorded in 40 m altitude above seafloor.
RAW-data of AUV sub-bottom-profiling mission; recorded in 40 m altitude above seafloor.