Advanced technology enhances NATO Navy’s autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) capabilities
December 12, 2023 – L3Harris, Voyis and Wavefront collaborate to deliver advanced technology to enhance NATO Navy’s autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) capabilities. L3Harris’ area of expertise is the development of AUVs for a variety of maritime applications. AUVs are designed to operate in harsh environments, including deep water and can be used for a range of missions, including search and rescue, surveillance, mine countermeasures and oceanography. L3Harris is at the forefront of AUV development and continuously advances its technology to meet critical evolving defence mission needs. To further improve L3Harris’ Iver4 900 AUV capabilities, the global defence company integrated a Voyis Recon LS and the Wavefront Solstice 3000 multiple-aperture sonar (MAS) Combined AUV payload onto the Iver4 900 platform to support defence missions.
The Voyis team, in collaboration with Wavefront Systems, is proud to announce a successful factory acceptance test of the Recon LS / Solstice MAS S3000 AUV payload with L3Harris, to be delivered to a NATO Navy, further improving the IVER4 900 capabilities. It consists of a single, integrated forward payload section housing Voyis’ compact dynamic laser scanner, which captures high-resolution 3D point-cloud data, the Voyis’ 4K imaging system with appropriate lighting which captures crisp, evenly illuminated still images with its edge-computed image enhancement feature, and finally, the Wavefront Systems’ Solstice multi-aperture side-scan sonar that delivers 200m-wide swath coverage and bathymetry at high resolution.
Combined AUV payload
The Voyis Recon LS/Wavefront Solstice Combined AUV payload offers a solution for autonomous underwater vehicles to covertly detect, classify, and identify mine-like objects (MLOs), reducing risk to divers. The system uses the multi-aperture side-scan sonar, 4K digital still-camera and high-resolution laser scanner to carry out this task.
The L3Harris’ Iver4 900 vehicle provides the payload with both stability and endurance to make the most of the payload.
MCM operations involve four stages: detection, classification, identification, and disposal/neutralization. Currently, side-scan sonar is used for mine detection and sometimes for classification. However, visual identification requires a clearance diver or remotely operated vehicles to enter the minefield, which is time-consuming and risky, especially in areas with complex seabed. This requires multiple resources to be deployed into a potentially hazardous environment to complete a successful operation, which is inefficient when relying on lower-quality sensor data and dangerous if humans are mobilizing the assets.
The Recon LS/Wavefront Solstice MAS Combined AUV payload is designed to rethink how mine countermeasure (MCM) operations are conducted today and enable single assets to complete complex missions without deploying additional resources within the minefield. By enabling search and classify mapping using Wavefront’s leading multi-aperture sonar Solstice, the vessel can re-acquire and identify MLOs using Voyis’ laser and camera, improving the probability of detection, reducing false alarms, and sustaining a high op tempo.
Voyis and Wavefront partnered with Forcys, a global maritime defence company and a sister company in Covelya Group, to market the system to allied nations.
About Voyis
Voyis, founded in 2007, is the first company to widely provide underwater laser scanners for underwater surveys and inspection. Voyis’ focus is to provide versatile optical solutions that expand customers’ underwater capabilities and help enhance understanding of remote or challenging environments by producing the best data possible.
Based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada | www.voyis.com
About Wavefront Systems
Wavefront was founded in 2004 with a mission to apply engineering excellence to the problems of underwater detection, imaging, and navigation. Wavefront works with its customers to make the underwater world visible – Wavefront is proud to have designed and developed some of the world’s most capable commercially available sonar systems including Sentinel IDS – Intruder Detection Sonar, Vigilant FLS – Forward Looking Sonar, Solstice MAS – Multi-Aperture Sonar and Sentry IMS – Integrity Monitoring Sonar. Wavefront’s industry-leading products are in use globally in civilian, public, defence, offshore and commercial markets.
Based in Sparkford, Somerset, UK | www.wavefront.systems
About L3Harris Technologies
L3Harris Technologies is the Trusted Disruptor for the global aerospace and defence industry. With customers’ mission-critical needs always in mind, our more than 50,000 employees deliver end-to-end technology solutions connecting the space, air, land, sea, and cyber domains.
Based in Melbourne, FL | www.L3Harris.com