International Submarine Engineering Ltd. (ISE) announced the award of a contract from MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA). ISE will provide two commercial off-the-shelf, high speed Aurora Towfish, which will be used to support mine detection missions and route survey operations for the Royal Canadian Navy’s Maritime Coastal Defence Vessels.
The Aurora towfish will include modifications to integrate new sensors and navigation equipment, including an L3 Klein sidescan sonar, and an R2Sonic bathymetric multibeam echosounder. The modular design of the vehicle makes it a simple matter to exchange sonar payloads.
The Aurora towfish has been proven as a viable component of the Royal Canadian Navy’s Route Survey system. In conjunction with the Dorado Semi-submersible Technical Demonstrator, Aurora has been used in many sea operations and evaluations since 1999. Further capabilities of Aurora were demonstrated during an evaluation in Esquimalt January 2008. There, Aurora was integrated and tested with the HMCS WhiteHorse Route Survey System Payload. Trials in Saanich Inlet, and approaches to Esquimalt Harbour demonstrated Aurora’s capability to deploy various sonar modules in operational survey conditions.
The towfish is active in the sense that it can maintain horizontal position and depth as well as avoid obstacles. Each towfish possesses its own controller. Earlier towfish have been fitted to variants of the DORADO Remote Minehunting System (RMS) for more than a decade.
ISE was formed in 1974 to design and build underwater vehicles. Based just outside Vancouver, Canada, ISE has delivered 240 vehicles and over 400 robotic manipulators to more than 20 countries around the world.
The ISE family of vehicles includes AUVs, ROVs, submersibles, semi-submersibles, and active towfish. ISE also has a robotics capability, having built underwater manipulators for a variety of functions and land based robotic systems for various applications ranging from intervention in hazardous environments, automated refueling and the robotic manipulator training systems for space.
[mappress] Naval Today Staff, February 14, 2013; Image: ISE