Leading survey company orders third Kongsberg Maritime HUGIN AUV

Fugro has placed an order for a cutting-edge Kongsberg Maritime HUGIN 1000 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). To be delivered Q4 2008, the third HUGIN in Fugro's AUV arsenal will be based at the company's Far East facilities in Singapore, in order to address the growing deep water market in the Asia Pacific region. HUGIN 1000 is a compact version of Kongsberg Maritime's HUGIN 3000, of which Fugro already operates two. Rated for 3000m water depth, HUGIN 1000 can carry an extensive payload of scientific instruments in order to provide high resolution geological and geophysical information, for use in the design of subsea structures and subsequent development of oil and gas fields. The new compact size HUGIN 1000 will be delivered with a custom designed transportable container and rechargeable, maintenance free Lithium Polymer batteries. The container includes work space for maintenance and an advanced two stage hinged stinger for launch and recovery of the vehicle over the stern of a vessel, with stern height up to 5 meters. HUGIN is widely recognised as the most advanced and reliable AUV on the market. It was originally developed through collaboration between the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, the Royal Norwegian Navy, Statoil and Kongsberg Maritime. Cooperation began in 1995, and the first HUGIN was put into commercial use in the North Sea in 1997. "We're delighted that Fugro has ordered its third HUGIN vehicle," said Morten Berntsen, Manager, Sales and Marketing - Underwater Instrumentation, Kongsberg Maritime. "The HUGIN 1000 order book continues to grow following an excellent year in 2007 that saw a number of significant orders taken from the Norwegian and Finnish Navies in addition to being contracted to provide a record six HUGIN 1000s for deployment on a fleet of new vessels for India's National Hydrographic Office."

24/7 Service and Maintenance Agreement

Reson offers Service and Maintenance Agreements for SeaBat sonar systems, where preventive maintenance service and support protects the system investments. The Service and Maintenance agreement is renewed every year and will provide SeaBat Multibeam sonar customers assurance against downtime, unexpected costs, and will ensure a better return on their investment. There are three levels of Service and Maintenance Agreements fulfilling individual needs. The benefit of having an SMA includes yearly maintenance and performance verification as well as firmware and hardware updates. The most comprehensive agreement includes on-site support and the availability of a loaner system during service to reduce downtime even further. All systems are registered under unique control numbers allowing RESON Support to efficiently track each system and keep service records up to date. The RESON service centers offer 24/7 product support by phone or e-mail to shorten downtime regardless of the location of the system.

Tritech International Appointment

Tritech International Ltd has appointed Maurice Fraser as its new Sales and Marketing Director. Throughout his short career with Tritech they have taken a keen interest in his professional development, leading to this position on the board. Maurice joined Tritech in 2003 as the Customer Training & Commissioning Engineer before joining the sales and marketing team with responsibilities for international business development. During this time Maurice and the sales and marketing team exceeded targets year on year. With a successful global expansion to over 30 distributors worldwide Tritech's international turnover increased by 40% p.a. through to the end of 2007. Prior to joining Tritech, Maurice enjoyed a long and successful career with the Royal Air Force in a variety of senior aircraft engineering roles. . Maurice has a BSc in Mathematics and Computing and HNCs in Electricity & Electronics and Mechatronics.

EdgeTech on REMUS 600 AUVs

EdgeTech's 2200-S 850 kHz Dynamically Focused Side Scan System will be installed on the Hydroid REMUS 600 AUVs recently ordered by the UK Ministry of Defence. The 850 kHz dynamically focused frequency provides extra high resolution imagery at longer ranges which makes it an ideal tool for Mine Countermeasure (MCM) surveys.  The EdgeTech 2200-S systems will also be used by the Royal Navy for hydrographic surveys and environmental assessments. The EdgeTech 2200-S System is designed specifically for small AUVs and comes available with a choice of dual simultaneous 120 & 410 or 230 & 540 kHz frequencies or 230 with 850 kHz dynamically focused frequency. Other frequency combinations are also possible.

Global Digital Vector Chart Service

The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) has launched the Admiralty Vector Chart Service (AVCS). AVCS will provide the international mariner with an integrated global set of Electronic Navigational Charts (ENCs) schemed in folios along the major shipping routes and covering the world's top ports, with ordering, flexible licensing and updating services. The service overcomes the present requirement to carry, maintain and use a mix of ENC, Raster and paper charts drawn from multiple sources. AVCS provides access to all previously available ENCs and exclusive access to a significant number of new ENCs, produced by the UKHO in co-operation with many of the world's Hydrographic offices, to fill gaps in coverage. To improve consistency, in addition to ensuring that newly produced coverage seamlessly sits alongside existing coverage, the UKHO has worked with many Hydrographic Offices to improve overall consistency. AVCS comprises only of official ENCs produced by government Hydrographic Offices and therefore is fully compliant with Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) legislation for use within Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDIS). Maintaining up-to-date ENCs is critical for their compliance and therefore the UKHO is launching the Admiralty Updating Service alongside AVCS which means that chart amendments can in the future be much more easily applied.

GIOVE-B transmitting its first signals

Following a successful launch on 27 April, GIOVE-B began transmitting navigation signals today. This is a truly historic step for satellite navigation since GIOVE-B is now, for the first time, transmitting the GPS-Galileo common signal using a specific optimised waveform, MBOC (multiplexed binary offset carrier), in accordance with the agreement drawn up in July 2007 by the EU and the US for their respective systems, Galileo and the future GPS III. These GIOVE-B signals, locked on-board to a highly stable Passive Hydrogen Maser clock, will provide higher accuracy in challenging environments where multipath and interference are present, and deeper penetration for indoor navigation. It demonstrates that Galileo and GPS are truly compatible and interoperable and that positioning services will benefit all users worldwide. “Now with GIOVE-B broadcasting its highly accurate signal in space we have a true representation of what Galileo will offer to provide the most advanced satellite positioning services, while ensuring compatibility and interoperability with GPS”, said Galileo Project Manager, Javier Benedicto. After launch, early orbit operations and platform commissioning, GIOVE-B's navigation payload was switched on and signal transmission commenced on 7 May and the quality of these signals is now being checked. Several facilities are involved in this process, including the GIOVE-B Control Centre at Telespazio's facilities in Fucino, Italy, the Galileo Processing Centre at ESA's European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), in the Netherlands, the ESA ground station at Redu, Belgium, and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) Chilbolton Observatory in the United Kingdom. Chilbolton's 25-metre antenna makes it possible to analyse the characteristics of GIOVE-B signals with great accuracy and verify that they conform to the Galileo system's design specification. Each time the satellite is visible from Redu and Chilbolton, the large antennas are activated and track the satellite. GIOVE-B is orbiting at an altitude of 23 173 kilometres, making a complete journey around the Earth in 14 hours and 3 minutes. The quality of the signals transmitted by GIOVE-B will have an important influence on the accuracy of the positioning information that will be provided by the user receivers on the ground. Onboard, GIOVE-B carries a passive hydrogen maser atomic clock, which is expected to deliver unprecedented stability performance. The signal quality can be affected by the environment of the satellite in its orbit and by the propagation path of the signals travelling from space to ground. Additionally, the satellite signals must not create interference with services operating in adjacent frequency bands, and this is also being checked. Galileo teams within ESA and industry have the means to observe and record the spectrum of the signals transmitted by GIOVE-B in real time. Several measurements are performed relating to transmitted signal power, centre frequency and bandwidth, as well as the format of the navigation signals generated on board. This allows the analysis of the satellite transmissions in the three frequency bands reserved for it. The GIOVE-B mission also represents an opportunity for validating in-orbit critical satellite technologies, characterising the Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) radiation environment, and to test a key element of the future Galileo system - the user receivers.