The HUGIN 1000 Portable AUV System has been demonstrated in Korean waters. The operation was carried out by KONGSBERG's AUV Department in close cooperation with the Agency for Defense Development (ADD) in the Republic of Korea (ROK).
The sea trials took place southwest of the city of Busan and covered both search for mines in shallow waters and REA in deeper waters. The HUGIN AUV executed all test dives autonomously without problems in up to sea state 4.
"It took one week, from the beginning of the transportation in Horten to the HUGIN 1000 first touched Korean waters, which is quite fantastic", explains &M HUGIN AUVs, Svein Otto Schjerven. "The first operation of this kind with the HUGIN 1000 system was a great success, and fully demonstrated the capacity of such an AUV system."
HUGIN 1000 Portable AUV System
The portable AUV system is fully containerized into one 20-foot ISO container for storage, battery management, vehicle maintenance, launch and recovery (L&R), and one 10-foot ISO container for mission planning, vehicle checkout, mission execution, and post-mission analysis (PMA). This advanced AUV system covers a wide range of operations like MCM, REA, route survey and high-quality bathymetric mapping surveys in areas of interest.
The main advantage of the HUGIN AUV is its small overall system footprint. This is primarily due to the multi-function 20-foot container, providing AUV storage, shipping, maintenance, battery charging, launch and recovery facilities, and furthermore due to the compactness of the 10-foot operations container, with only two operators needed for the entire operation.
The system allows fast and easy mobilization onto vessels of opportunity due to ISO containerization, well-defined and simple interface points, and the self-sufficient nature of the system. The entire system fits on a standard truck, and can use all standard shipping methods, including overnight airlift to anywhere in the world.
AUV operations are run directly from the 10-foot ISO container, with no need to tie into a ship's systems or internal spaces. In the portable system, a KONGSBERG High-Precision Acoustic Positioning (HiPAP) 350 system and a tow-fish transducer for acoustic communication are included, as well as a Kongsberg SeaPath system for accurate ship reference position and attitude.
The 20-foot container includes a two-stage L&R "stinger" (hydraulically controlled hinged ramp) which allows AUV operations from vessels with a stern freeboard of up to 5 meters. Both ISO containers are insulated and equipped with heating systems to enable operations in Arctic environments, as well as air condition system for operations in tropical climate.