It sinks into deep ocean seas and thanks to its ‘eyes’ and ‘nose’ it collects useful data to protect the environment or sophisticated systems such as submarine gas pipelines. It is the Hugin 4500 underwater drone, a technological jewel that the Italian Lighthouse announced it had just brought to Italy by changing its direction to the mapping of the seabed. “Hugin 4500 was designed and built by the Norwegian Kongsberg, it is a self-driving underwater vehicle and is able to investigate the seabed at very high resolution up to a depth of 4,500 meters”, explains geologist Enrico Sassi, commercial director to Adnkronos. of Lighthouse, the company founded 30 years ago in Bologna with the vocation of marine geology and geophysics and led by Pietro Basciano.
“With this new underwater drone we are able to give complete information to those who expect a detailed map of a seabed from us” assures the geologist. The autonomous underwater vehicle “sinks into ocean depths and thanks to its data allows you to protect the environment, monitor underwater gas pipelines but not only. The drone can see submerged wrecks and also allow archaeological discoveries” reports the manager of Lighthouse. And if the company’s motto is “Think beyond. Stay one step ahead”, driven by this ambitious goal, the Italian company has always wanted to rely on the most modern technologies to carry out its geological survey services at sea. seabed: from a few meters to the maximum depths of the oceans. Processes that now find a precious ally in the Hugin 4500 drone.
The vehicle is in fact “programmed to navigate autonomously by flying over the seabed at a constant height and is programmable – continues Sassi – according to needs, from a few meters to a few tens of meters always from the seabed. It is also equipped with an intelligent system navigation which, through various sensors, reads the morphology of the seabed, recognizes its position and carries out a search mission autonomously at a speed of over 3 knots “.
“The possibility of carrying out surveys at high speed is also an advantage for the environment and allows missions to be carried out more quickly, ensuring a clear energy saving for the research vessel that supports the vehicle” underlines Sassi. Hugin 4500 is equipped with a set of sensors, acoustic and not, innovative and of very high precision. “These sensors allow us to collect precise data of the morphology of the bottom, to ‘see’ the faults, to collect data on sediments that are under the seabed and also to recognize metal objects such as old wrecks or unexploded bombs,” adds the geologist. Which underlines how Lighthouse’s new Auv Hugin is equipped with a photographic and laser acquisition system that allows you to capture a photo-mosaic of the seabed and perform 3D measurements in optical precision.
Sassi explains that on board the underwater drone “a sort of ‘camera’ is installed which, while the vehicle is moving on the bottom, emits a laser beam that allows a 3D photo of the seabed. This technology – observes the geologist – it can help in the protection of marine ecosystems, it could in fact identify coral meadows during the design of a plant, thus allowing the preservation of these precious colonies “. But the 3D photos are also strategic for monitoring a “submarine pipeline allowing to understand if it is corroded or damaged so as to repair it promptly even in respect of the environment”.
“Our main interlocutors are oil companies, large manufacturers of fiber optic cables, operators of electrical interconnection networks, installers of submarine cables and pipelines. The underwater drone is therefore a strategic ally because before building a cable or a gas pipeline you need to understand how the seabed is made, you need detailed information “so that the company involved in the construction of the work knows the risks it faces and can draw the consequences in real time”. In short, finally adds the geologist, “The Hugin 4500 also allows us to constantly monitor a pipeline or platform and inspect it promptly.”