SonarDock - SonarBell aided AUV Docking

The potential for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) to perform tasks underwater has
been recognised by industry across several market sectors, including, military, commercial
and scientific. Their importance has also been recognised to the future of the UK economy
and its global technological standing by the UK Government within the Defence Growth
Partnership and Robotics and Autonomous Systems Special Interest Group (RAS-SIG).
To benefit from the use of AUVs, several technological challenges must be overcome. One of
the challenges faced is the recovery of the AUV and more specifically, the autonomous
docking of an AUV into a docking station positioned on the seabed. Our proposal provides a
novel AUV docking solution. It is based around the use of passive acoustic reflectors
(SonarBell devices developed by Subsea Asset Location Technologies (SALT) Ltd.), a
commercial sonar typical of that fitted to an AUV, and sonar processing algorithms. Within
this programme of work, this concept will be proven.
The work will be conducted during 2016 and successful completion will increase the visibility
and credibility of our concept, helping us to raise further investment for development of a preproduction
prototype. We expect this further development to take place in 2017 with early
products available during 2018. To achieve this we will need to partner with an AUV
specialist during the follow-on development programme.
We are predicting a significant increase in revenue during the five year period after the
completion of the pre-production prototype. This is based on a conservative penetration into
the AUV market.
This project will generate jobs and revenues for us and in doing so will aid the UK economy
as well as cement the country’s reputation as a world-leader in AUV technologies.