Major savings through acoustic positioning

Hydro International -

CSA International Inc, an environmental survey company working in the Gulf of Mexico, has become the first organisation in the world to purchase a new, ‘calibration-free' acoustic positioning system launched by Sonardyne International Ltd.

The GyroUSBL (image) integrates Sonardyne's Lodestar Attitude and Heading Reference System (AHRS) and sixth generation (6G) Ultra-Short BaseLine (USBL) transceiver into a single unit and was shown to offer operational benefits during a deep water ROV survey carried out this summer.

Most USBL positioning systems need to undergo a calibration process to determine the precise alignment offsets between the acoustic transceiver and the vessel's own attitude sensors.

This is often a time-consuming exercise involving the vessel undertaking specific manoeuvres over several hours whilst all the necessary data is collected and then processed. 

With Lodestar GyroUSBL, any sensor offsets have largely been removed by the tight mechanical coupling of the survey-grade AHRS unit and the USBL array during its assembly and calibration at Sonardyne's factory.

This integration also enables the attitude sensor data latencies associated with conventional USBL set-ups, to be virtually eliminated, further improving precision and accuracy. Lodestar GyroUSBL can therefore be deployed on any vessel and put to work very quickly without users first having to perform a calibration.

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