France
Victor ROV
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Operator: IFREMER / French Navy Further Information Victor, dedicated to scientific ocean research, is a deepwater, remote-controlled system. It is instrumented and modular and can perform high quality optical imaging and can carry and operate various equipment and scientific tools. The lower part of the vehicle is composed of an instrumented scientific module which can be changed according to the type of assignment. It contains most of the instrumentation as well as the sampling basket. This modular system can also be enhanced and used as a technological platform for new equipment. |
AsterX AUV
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Operator: IFREMER Further Information The coastal AUV programme: Scientific survey down to 3000 m depth with medium size autonomous vehicles.Asterx key figures: depth rating 3000 m, length 4.5 m, total weight in air 793 kg including 200 kg payload displacement, autonomy 100 km max, speed up to 5 knt, optimized mono-hull design, 4 air transport LD3 containers. |
Nautile SUB
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Operator: IFREMER Further Information The Nautile is a manned submarine designed for observing and operating at depths reaching 6000 metres. Since its commissioning in 1984, it has logged nearly 1,500 dives from the research vessels Nadir or l'Atalante. Fields of operation includes exploration of specific zones, high precision bathymetry and physical measurements, Collecting samples and manipulating special tools, assistance for offshore assignments, cable and pipeline layouts and inspection search, location, investigation and assistance in raising wrecks and assistance for submersibles in distress. |
SAR towed acoustic system
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Operator: IFREMER Further Information The SAR is a high-resolution multisensor geophysical tool designed to study the geological nature and structure of deepwater seafloors (200 to 6000 m). It is a towed system whose sidescan imagery resolution (1 pixel per 25 cm) can perform detailed seabed studies to complement larger scale surveys (multibeam, wide coverage sonars). Since its commissioning in 1984, the SAR has made more than 450 dives, covering 17 000 km2 of seafloor, aboard Ifremer's research vessels, Suroît, Nadir, l'Atalante as well as on the Marion Dufresne, the Discovery and the Hudson. |
Germany
Kiel 6000 ROV
Operator: GEOMAR
Further Information
The ROV KIEL 6000 (remotely operated vehicle) has been designed for scientific purposes with an operational depth rating of 6000m.
Remote control, data communication and live video streams are facilitated by a deep-sea glass fibre cable. The glass fibres are enclosed in a 19mm thick cable which also provides the electrical power for the thruster, hydraulics, cameras and lights.
The vehicle is an electrically powered work class (class III) ROV which has been manufactured by Schilling Robotics, LLC, Davis, California. Its modular concept allows for different scientific payloads.
With a depth rating of 6000m it is capable of reaching 95% of the world’s seafloor. The ROV can be operated from ships of opportunity which fullfill certain requirements like dynamic positioning (DP), bearing capacity, electric and crane/winch capacity.
KIEL 6000 will be used for multidisciplinary scientific projects and for the installation and maintainance of ocean observatories.
Procurement of the ROV has been realised by the Schleswig-Holstein Fund.
JAGO SUB 400
Operator: GEOMAR
Further Information
JAGO is a manned submersible primarily dedicated to exploration and research in marine sciences. It allows researchers of different disciplines a personal view on the seafloor to a depth of 400 meters.
The submersible moves autonomously underwater and is not connected by an umbrilical cable to a support ship. Two large hemispherical viewports provide excellent views of the sea bed and surrounding environment for both the pilot and one observer.
The relatively light weight (3 tons) and the compact size (3 x 2 x 2.5 m) enable worldwide operations from a wide variety of support ships that have sufficient crane capacity, as well as logistically simple transportation in a single 20' sea freight container.
Typical applications are deep-water exploration of the seafloor and overlying water column; digital photo/video documentation; selective collection of specific organisms, rock, gas and water samples; deployment of instruments; environmental impact studies; inspections and salvages.
JAGO is presently the only manned research submersible in Germany. It has been stationed at the Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research (GEOMAR) since 2006. The craft was built in 1989, according to the rules of the Germanischer Lloyd for underwater vehicles, by a small expert team at the former Max Planck Institute for Behavioural Physiology in Bavaria.
ROV Quest 4000
Operator: Marum Institute
Further Information
The Alstom Schilling Robotics (ASR) remotely operated vehicle (ROV), QUEST, that is stationed in Bremen is a commercial robotics system developed over the past five years primarily for routine offshore industrial deployment in the deep sea. It has proven its value over several years. In contrast to the commercial model, the Bremen QUEST has been adapted for scientific deployment and for diving in water depths down to 4000 meters.
During its development, a series of new technological achievements have been made with numerous practical objectives that did not exist for any other systems. These include an extremely efficient energy transfer, a greatly simplified but very capable telemetry and data allocation, a new kind of power system with coreless electric motors, as well as a generally modular and trim system design.
Using a power cable with a thickness of only 17.6 mm reduced the weight of the handling system to less than 15 tonnes, so that deployment on the large German research vessels is possible without constructional changes to the ships.
For marine research this makes a working platform available that can be adapted to very different missions with relatively little technical effort and expense. Especially valuable is the unique combination of the available scientifically usable energy with the extremely precise positioning capability through the incorporation of acoustic Doppler-log data in the autopilot controls (e.g.,for video transects, absolutely positioned sampling, and cm-accurate grids).
After its initial successful deployment on M58/3 in June 2003 on the METEOR, further cruises are carried out on a regular basis, including cruises for the DFG thematic program, 'SPP 1144, Spreading centers at mid-ocean ridges' and the DFG research center Ocean Margins.
Netherlands
DEEP-SEA WINCH (Kley France)
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Operator: NIOZ Further Information Kevlar cabled traction winch for deep-sea work up to 8000 m. Special assistance is needed with this equipment. |
Ultra Clean CTD
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Operator: NIOZ Further Information To achieve contamination free seawater sampling and sub sampling in order to measure low concentrations of trace metals in seawater. For this reason A full titanium Ultra Clean CTD-frame, an Ultra Clean Container for sub-sampling and an clean transportation system to the Clean Container were developed. The Ultra Clean CTD Works normally in combination with the NIOZ Kevlar Cable Winch and GO-FLO CTD-bottles. |
Lab Containers
Operator: NIOZ
Further Information
Wet Lab Container: Standard 20 foot container, including ventilation and airco system.
Cooled Lab Container: Standard 20 foot container, including air-conditioning and ventilation system.
Clean Room Container: Standard 20 foot container, including air-conditioning, air filtration and ventilation system. Clean room class: 100 - 1.000.
Autoanalyzer Container: Standard 20 foot container, including ventilationsystem, airco, heating, Milli-RO and Milli-Q waterinstallation. Maximum 4 different nutrients can be analysed in 1 container with a maximum of 800 analyses per day.
Cool/Freeze Storage Container: Standard 20 foot container, including storage racks.
Office Container: Standard 20 foot container, including ventilation system.
Transport Container: Standard 20 foot container.
Special Purpose Containers:
- Oxygen & Salinity Analyzing lab
- Scanfish container
- Isotope laboratory
- Seismic Data Lab
- Moorings Service Container(NO POOL)
- Ultra Clean CTD container
- XRF Core Scanner container
- Seismic Compressor container
- Fish Processing container(NO POOL)
- 10’ Incubation container(NO POOL)
- Isotope laboratory
Norway
Aglantha ROV
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Operator: IMR Further Information Development of the Argus Abyss ROV (project name Aglantha), a low cost and high performance scientific ROV for depths down to 2000 meters, together with the University of Bergen and the Hasselblad foundation. |
Kley France Calypso Corer System
Operator: IMR
Further Information
The Calypso corer system was ordered from Kley France to be equipped on the new research vessel G.O. Sars, delivered April 2003. It consists of a corer sampler with a total weight of 3800 kg, a winch/drum and a control container. The Calypso corer is capable of making sedimental samples up to 22 meters at a depth of total 6000m, on the G.O. Sars version, and the 9 tonnes scientific winch is made for multi purpose use.
The winch and the drum is mounted on a 20ft container platform (separates into two 10ft platform to ease loading). The control is mounted in a 10ft container.
In addition to this there is a 10ft corer deployment platform, hydraulic adjustable, for launch/recovery operations.
The Calypso corer is released from the main cable approximately 1 meter above sea floor. An internal wire connected to a piston at the bottom of the corer helps neutralizing the pressure at impact and also connects the corer to main cable for recovery.
The system is powered by 440 VAC/ 60Hz.
ROV Ægir 6000
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Operator: IMR Further Information Norway’s new scientific remotely operated vehicle (ROV) has been christened Ægir, after the old Norse god of the sea, Being one of the few vehicles in the world able to dive as deeply as 6,000 meters |
United Kingdom
ISIS
Operator: NERC
Further Information
ISIS is a remotely operated vehicle capable of descending to 6500m below the surface of the ocean.
An operator in the control van aboard the mother ship can guide the vehicle to precise locations by sending commands to the vehicle's thrusters. Once there the operator can use the ROV's manipulators like arms and hands to do scientific tasks such as taking samples and deploying instruments. The operator can view the sea floor through up to 8 separate cameras mounted on the vehicle.
ISIS also has sophisticated sonar systems to make high resolution bathymetry maps of the seafloor as well as chemical sensors and a 'slurp' gun to take mid water biological samples.
TOBI
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Operator: NERC Further Information Towed Ocean Bottom Instrument (TOBI) is an instrumented vehicle which is towed close to the bottom of the deep ocean from a ship, and uses sound to form detailed images of the sea floor. TOBI was developed by NOC and has been in service since 1990, it is has become one of world’s best tools for underwater geological surveys using side scan sonar. |
BRIDGET
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Operator: NERC Further Information BRIDGET is a towed vehicle used for chemical and biochemical analysis of seawater down to depths of 5000m. Designed to be as flexible as possible, BRIDGET has a standard suite of instruments for sampling and measuring the plumes from underwater volcanic vents, “Black Smokers”. New sensors can be added, and their data stream incorporated into the BRIDGET record. |
SHRIMP
Operator: NERC
Further Information
Sea floor High Resolution Imaging Platform (SHRIMP) is NOC’S high resolution deep-towed camera platform. It carries still photograph camera as well as downward looking video cameras, which send live images to the ship along a single mode fibre optic link, from depths of up to 5000m.
Autosub
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Operator: NERC Further Information Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are robot submarines, which are used to explore the world’s oceans without a pilot, or any tether. Before launch from the mother ship, the AUV’s computers are programmed with instructions of where to go, what to measure, and what depths to go to. With no link to the mother ship, all communications with the AUV are limited to using acoustics (sound) when the AUV is underwater (this typically has a range of a few km) or satellite communications (such as Iridium) can be used when the AUV is floating on the sea surface. |