KONGSBERG, Norway—Kongsberg Maritime has unveiled the next generation of its advanced autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). The HUGIN Endurance can operate up to 15 days, enabling extended survey and inspection missions far from shore.

“With its unprecedented long-range capability and advanced communications, HUGIN Endurance sets a new standard for autonomous subsea mapping and inspection, yielding unmatched operational flexibility, efficiency and sustainability,” claims Richard Mills, vice president of marine robotics sales at Kongsberg Maritime. “[This] represents a step change in AUV operations Teaming long endurance with large area coverage capabilities allows a single AUV to map areas up to 1,100 square kilometers in a single mission—a target impossible until now.”

According to Mills, a maritime broadband radio (MBR) communications system allows the vessel to surface and share large quantities of data with any suitably equipped installation, such as another vessel, shore station or a wind turbine fitted with an MBR antenna. It can also be equipped with a wide array of sensors, including a high-resolution synthetic aperture sonar; a wide swath multibeam echosounder; a sub-bottom profiler and magnetometer; and other devices to devices to detect parameters such as methane, current and turbidity.