Vigilant FLS
for Uncrewed Subsurface

Vigilant FLS Overview

Vigilant provides real-time 3D images of the seabed and water column ahead of the vessel. It maintains a history of the entire seabed environment surrounding the vehicle. Vigilant will also provide automated warnings to allow the platform control software to assess and take action to prevent collisions.

Vigilant is our family of long-range, Forward Looking Sonars (FLS). They are compact navigation and obstacle avoidance sonars providing automated alarms warning of objects in the water column out to 1.5 km. They create – with unrivalled resolution and detail – a real-time, easy to interpret 3D terrain map of the seabed and water column ahead, out to 600 m, and down to 100 m water depth.

The Vigilant 1000 and 1500 models consist of a separate sonar projector and receiver whereas Vigilant Compact features a combined projector/reciever design for applications where space is limited.

Seaborne collision avoidance is vital for autonomous ships and an ever-increasing number of uncrewed subsurface vessels in the offshore energy, commercial marine and naval market sectors. Vigilant can be easily integrated into these autonomous platforms. It will provide essential information to autopilots and command and control systems to aid safe navigation and manoeuvres around hazardous obstacles.

Vigilant has two principal operating modes: 3D and SONAR mode, both of which offer a class leading 120 degrees field of view on all range scales. Vigilant’s unique patented technology allows our 3D mode to provide stunning 3D depth imagery further ahead of the platform than any competing system, at ranges in excess of 20 times the prevailing water depth up to a maximum 600 m range and down to 100 m depth. Sonar mode processes the intensity of the acoustic data to extract long-range positional data of objects up to ranges of 1500 m. Data from both modes are used to automatically generate alerts for the operator or supervising system to warn of the presence of a navigationally relevant obstacle. With its history mapping capability, a comprehensive picture of the underwater environment surrounding the vessel is built up. This provides crews and autonomous systems with maximum situational awareness for collision or ground avoidance, tight manoeuvres or backing out of confined areas.

The Vigilant FLS family are designed to be retrofitted to existing vessels and new builds. Comprehensive engineering support and advice is available from Wavefront to support installation and commissioning.

General

Design