Hydroid unveils new REMUS 600-S AUV

Kongsberg Maritime subsidiary, Hydroid, has unveiled its Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), the REMUS 600 Survey (REMUS 600-S). The system is designed to collect high-resolution, IHO-quality data with unmatched accuracy, and with long-endurance capabilities and increased-payload capacities, the REMUS 600-S brings new capabilities to applications such as under-ice surveys, pipeline inspection and channel monitoring. It was introduced at the XVIII International Hydrographic Conference (IHC) in Monaco.

According to Hydroid, the REMUS 600-S is a high performance version of the successful REMUS 600 AUV and features advanced technology that has only previously been available in Kongsberg's accomplished HUGIN vehicles, making it ideal for such applications as International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) quality surveys.

Specifically, the REMUS 600-S incorporates a Kongsberg EM 3002 Multibeam Echosounder (MBES) operating at 300 kHz. The MBES has previously been shown to exceed the feature-detection requirements of the IHO standard S-44 for Order 1a surveys.

The vehicle also features Kongsberg's Navigation Processing Suite (NavP), which improves timing accuracy to 1 ms or better and provides complete time synchronisation of all onboard sensors, and the Navigation Laboratory (NavLab) software, which enhances the NavP by increasing navigational integrity.

The REMUS 600-S benefits United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLS) surveys, search and recovery operations, emergency response surveys, rapid environmental assessment and military survey operations by providing a transportable and reliable platform to gather high resolution data. The vehicle comes equipped with a full suite of communications options, including Iridium, Wi-Fi and acoustic communication; Hydroid's flexible Vehicle Interface Program (VIP); and an EdgeTech 2200-S Sidescan Sonar.

Hydroid's REMUS AUVs are modular and may be fitted with a large number of different types of sensors and have been used to aid in hydrographic surveys, harbour security operations,  scientific sampling and mapping, as well as many basic and applied research programmes funded by ONR, DARPA and the UK Ministry of Defence.