Norwegian long-range AUV performs multi-week fully autonomous mission

Norway’s Kongsberg Discovery has completed a multi-week fully autonomous mission with its long-range autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) HUGIN Endurance, said to have proven shore-to-shore operational capability.

The mission, carried out at depths ranging from 50 to 3,400 meters and meeting the 1,200 nautical mile range, follows factory acceptance testing for the first production system of the AUV that was completed in April and sea trials in March.

After receiving a final navigation update from a pre-deployed transponder 10 hours into the dive, the 8-ton HUGIN Endurance operated completely independent of human interaction and with no external navigation aiding, Kongsberg Discovery said.

“The success of this mission proves HUGIN Endurance’s shore-to-shore operational capability. Removing the need for a surface ship provides a huge savings to our customers, in both time and resources,” said Espen Henriksen, Executive Vice President Uncrewed Platforms Division at Kongsberg Discovery.

The aim of the mission was to validate the design specifications of the AUV and put the vehicle through its paces in a real-world environment. It consisted of straight-line transits spanning 60-300nm legs and survey areas.

According to the Norwegian firm, the survey areas covered 36nm2 with very high-resolution synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) imagery and bathymetry, using Kongsberg’s HISAS 1032 Dual Rx, in less than 48 hours. Camera imagery and laser profiling data was also collected, at altitudes down to 9 meters.

“The mission we’ve just completed validates the design specifications of the system and provides proof that our HUGIN autonomy framework is fully capable of performing complex multi-day missions with no human interaction.  We are extremely excited about the vast operational capabilities we can bring to our customers with HUGIN Endurance,” said Rich Patterson, Vice President of Sales, Uncrewed Platforms Division.

Launched in 2021, HUGIN Endurance is the largest member of Kongsberg Discovery’s HUGIN family of AUVs. The vehicle includes a large configurable volume that can be used to carry a mixture of batteries and custom payloads as needed. The system is designed to allow autonomous operations directly from shore, and with a full complement of batteries, it can spend up to 15 days at sea, traveling up to 2,200 kilometers.