An eight-ton, 12-meter-long drone set a record by autonomously diving to a depth of 3,400 meters during a mission that lasted several weeks.
Norwegian company Kongsberg’s autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Hugin Endurance has reached a major milestone in its development testing. The latest AUV in the company’s Hugin series, the Endurance can operate autonomously over long distances between shores, Interesting Engineering reported on September 5.
The latest Hugin Endurance mission had a depth range of 50 – 3,400 m and an estimated range of 2,222 km. Hugin Endurance returned with a position error of only 0.02% of the total distance traveled.
The Hugin Endurance is a completely autonomous system that can operate for long periods without human assistance. The Endurance is the largest version of the Hugin free-swimming series. The vehicle offers optimized hydrodynamics, great flexibility and high precision.
The underwater drone can be equipped with a variety of mission- and situation-specific sensors, including sonar tools for mapping and inspection, such as Kongsberg’s HISAS synthetic aperture sonar and EM multibeam systems. Both above- and below-water sensors support autonomous decision making. According to the company, Endurance is well-positioned to meet commercial requirements for high-quality data collection with advanced technologies such as the latest-generation pressurized lithium-ion battery, sensors, Sunstone inertial navigation system, and HISAS micro-navigation.
The Hugin Endurance can handle unexpected situations, switch between operating modes and communicate safely with a remote operations center. The key features of the vehicle are its low environmental impact and the ability to operate continuously between shores for up to 15 days. The drone can survey a range of 2,200 km and map an area of 1,100 km2 using advanced sonar technology. The system operates at depths of up to 6,000 m. The Hugin Endurance can be launched and recovered from the shore or any available vessel.
According to Kongsberg, the completed mission helped validate the system’s design parameters and demonstrate that Hugin’s autonomous platform can handle complex multi-day tasks without human intervention.
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