Kraken receives ThunderFish Alpha AUV
Kraken Sonar Systems has received ThunderFish Alpha, an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) designed for deep sea military, commercial and scientific applications, the company announced on 26 June.
Developed by Germany's Fraunhofer Institute, the ThunderFish Alpha AUV will be used to support ongoing development of Kraken's underwater sensor and robotics programmes.
The Fraunhofer AUV programme was developed to create a versatile and compact vehicle. The vehicle can operate in ocean depths up to 6,000m and is equipped with sensor systems, including Kraken's AquaPix MINSAS sonar. Other sensors include obstacle avoidance sonars, multi-beam echo sounder and advanced navigation/positioning sensors.
The AUV incorporate pressure-tolerant battery technology from Kraken Power, Kraken's DataPod data storage modules and distributed control system architecture.
This allows the vehicle to quickly complete survey missions, offload survey data, enable efficient integration of additional payloads and provide battery capacity for increased operational endurance.
Kraken plans to upgrade ThunderFish Alpha with larger sensors, including MINSAS 120 sonar with real time SAS processor and its SeaVision 3D underwater laser imaging system. The size of the AUV will be increased to support the larger payload capacity and the addition of tunnel thrusters to provide hovering capability for target inspection and precision manoeuvring.
While the ThunderFish Alpha will be used primarily as a technology demonstration platform, it will also test operational performance related to maritime robotics as a service.
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