Hydroid Inc., has successfully completed testing of the REMUS 600 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) with the newly integrated HISAS 2040 synthetic aperture sonar. This advanced technology allows for higher resolution sonar images than conventional sonars.

“Compared to traditional sonars, the HISAS 2040 sonar reduces survey time and provides data images with a resolution 10 times higher than traditional sonars,” said Graham Lester, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Hydroid. “It also offers high-performance in-mission processing and sonar quality assessment. This integration advancement is an example of how we consistently challenge ourselves as a company to evolve products and technologies to meet our customer’s future needs. It is our passion to be continually advancing our products.”

The HISAS 2040 is able to build up a series of synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) images that represent different observation angles. Through this multi-aspect imaging, an AUV operator is able to obtain an extra dimension in the data set since many complex objects have a high aspect-dependent echo and shadow structure. The HISAS 2040 has a practical resolution of 5cm x 5cm at all ranges.

The versatility and capability of the REMUS 600 platform were demonstrated at Autonomous Warrior 2018 when the DST Group REMUS 600 fitted with a 2G Robotics laser module was used to obtain high-resolution data and imagery of Mine Like Objects and seafloor features.