Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has begun training students to operate their new Saab Seaeye Falcon underwater robotic vehicle, the most popular system of its class in the world. This follows Saab Seaeye Falcon training for CSIRO staff at the organisation’s facility in Hobart, Tasmania by BlueZone. The course was adapted to give hands-on practical training for CSIRO staff in a week-long training program, which includes theory and practice sessions set near the dockside in Hobart. CSIRO staff are pleased that the training focuses on ‘real-word practicalities’.

 

 Widely adopted by the marine science community for a variety of missions in the most challenging environments in the world, the Falcon’s advanced iCON intelligent control architecture makes for an easy role change and is readily customised. Not only does iCON allow a variety of equipment to be installed on-board and in underslung skids, the Falcon has the thruster power and control to offer extreme manoeuvrability whilst also remaining stable when undertaking precision filming and delicate tasks in strong cross currents. This ability for precise station-keeping, allows the operator to concentrate on the task at hand.

  

The global success of the Falcon concept comes from having packed five powerful thrusters and an intelligent distributed control system, into a compact 1 x 0.5 x 0.6 meter versatile system, which can operate at 300 m, and 1000 m, and has been proven worldwide since 2002. The CSIRO Falcon features include high-density dimmable LED lighting, Tritech Super SeaPrince sonar and a Kongsberg OE14-502 HD zoom camera. Since 2000, BlueZone has specified, delivered and supported sales of many different Saab Seaeye systems in the Australian regions.