Mega AUV HUGIN Endurance Passes Sea Trials

Thursday, October 26, 2023

Kongsberg Discovery started sea trials with its new long-range Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), HUGIN Endurance.

Launched in 2021, HUGIN Endurance measures nearly 11m long with a 1.2m diameter, weighing around 8,000 kg. This mega AUV is rated to a depth of 6,000m and designed to facilitate independent multi-role operations spanning approximately 2,200km or 1,200 nautical miles.

Powered by pressure-tolerant lithium batteries, the unit can be deployed directly from shore and spend up to 15 days at sea
 
“The name Endurance says it all," said Martin Wien Fjell, President Kongsberg Discovery. "Its long-range capability represents a huge cost benefit, with no mother ship required for launching, monitoring and recharging. For customers, being able to carry out unsupervised operations far from any support infrastructure, both reduces project costs and carbon footprint while significantly increasing the weather window. And even if a support ship is available or required, it can be assigned to other productive tasks while the HUGIN Endurance is on mission.”

As standard, HUGIN Endurance comes equipped with a wide array of sensors for survey campaigns. This includes a wide-swath high-resolution synthetic aperture sonar (HISAS 1032 Dual RX), multibeam echo sounder (EM 2040 MkII), sub-bottom profiling system, colour camera, laser profiler, magnetometer and environmental sensors collecting data such as conductivity, temperature, sound and speed, and environmental sensors for methane, CO2 and O2 concentration.

The unit retains many capabilities found across Kongsberg Discovery’s entire HUGIN range. It also looks similar to previous HUGIN models but boasts new features including fins that allow stable and horizontal flight in waters of varying density and more agile bottom avoidance, as well as a unique tail design accommodating contra-rotating dual propellers.

Using KONGSBERG’s Sunstone inertial navigation system (INS) for highly accurate underwater positioning, HUGIN Endurance is designed for days to weeks of submerged autonomous operation without position update from external sources. A new autonomous mission management system allows new levels of situational awareness and decision making compared to previous designs. HUGIN Endurance can communicate acoustically with pre-deployed transponders and surface vessels when submerged and has RF and satellite connectivity when at the surface.


Sea trials of the first HUGIN Endurance in progress (Photo: Kongsberg Discovery) 





Categories: Technology Subsea AUV Autonomy

Related Stories

Fugro Names Annabelle Vos Director for Middle East & India

Shelf Drilling to Consolidate Jack-Up Fleet and Resolve Funding Gaps via Triangular Merger

Allseas Hooks $180M Pipeline Installation Job Offshore Philippines

Oil Loadings at Russia's Western Ports on the Rise

Indonesia Green Lights Eni Gas Projects

A Hydrogen Balancing Act in Offshore Energy

Environmental Group Backs Out of Scarborough Litigation

Shipbuilding: Wind Turbine Installation Vessel Delivered to Cadeler

ADNOC Signs LNG Supply Agreement with Osaka Gas for Ruwais LNG Project

Valeura Set to Restart Wassana Production Offshore Thailand

Current News

Valeura Energy Consolidates Thai Oil and Gas Assets

TotalEnergies Inks 15-Year LNG Supply Deal with China’s Sinopec

Shelf Drilling Secures $200M Contract Extensions with Chevron for Thailand Ops

Floating Wind and the Taming of Subsea Spaghetti

Impending Shortage of Jackups within Ageing Asia Pacific Fleet

Equinor Tries Again for a Japan Offshore Wind Lease

Yinson Production Concludes Minority Stake Sale in FPSO Anna Nery

Sunda Energy Pushes Back Chuditch-2 Appraisal Well Drilling Date

CNOOC Starts Production at Another Oil Field in South China Sea

ABS Takes Charge of Digital Twin Project for Petrobras’ FPSOs

Subscribe for AOG Digital E‑News

AOG Digital E-News is the subsea industry's largest circulation and most authoritative ENews Service, delivered to your Email three times per week

https://accounts.newwavemedia.com