Kongsberg to supply HUGIN AUV to Lighthouse

Kongsberg Maritime has signed an agreement with the survey company Lighthouse for the delivery of a HUGIN autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) system in March 2021.

The HUGIN to be delivered is rated to 4,500 metres and equipped with a full geophysical survey payload, including a Kongsberg HISAS 1032 synthetic aperture sonar, EM2040 multibeam echosounder, sub-bottom profiler, camera and laser, together with a range of environmental sensors.

The scope of supply extends to all equipment required for day-to-day operations, including a 30-ft AUV container housing the Stinger launch and recovery system, battery chargers and maintenance equipment.

A 10-ft operations room container is configured for mission planning and dive management as well as data download and review.

Pietro Basciano, CEO of Lighthouse, said: “We at Lighthouse have chosen to invest in a HUGIN AUV System, confident that it will provide state-of-the-art AUV technology with unique quality and reliability. We believe this will open commercial opportunities for us”.

The HUGIN AUV system is said to be the most successful commercial AUV in the world. More survey kilometres have been completed by HUGINs than any other AUV, according to Kongsberg Maritime.

Lighthouse’s HUGIN benefits from some proven enabling technologies that further enhance its capabilities, including automatic pipeline following. It uses real-time data from the HISAS and EM2040 systems to detect pipelines, tracking either alongside or over the top of them to collect sonar, camera and laser data, Kongsberg Maritime said.