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The CSIC’s Marine Technology Unit incorporates a Girona 500 AUV

The CSIC’s Marine Technology Unit, responsible for the management of this organization’s oceanographic research vessels, is preparing a new autonomous underwater vehicle for future campaigns. It is the Girona 500 NEMO, an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) that can go up to 500 meters deep, designed and built by IQUA Robotics. NEMO was acquired at the end of last year and was tested for the first time in the waters of Sant Feliu de Guíxols (Girona).  

Currently, the technicians of the Marine Technology Unit are preparing NEMO for carrying CTD sensors (which measure conductivity, temperature and depth), photographic cameras, current profilers and bathymetric probes. “Our vehicle has an open architecture, so it can be modified in a reasonably simple way to adapt it to user requirements and therefore explore new ways of working,” explains Pablo Rodríguez, from the UTM.  

Thus, it will allow mapping underwater habitats, obtaining topographies of the seabed, of interest in the field of geology or underwater archaeology, exploring marine habitats or monitoring natural reserves. In the near future, the vehicle could also be deployed in Antarctic campaigns. NEMO has sparked interest among researchers, who are already including its use in future projects.  

The Marine Technology Unit (UTM), based in Barcelona and attached to the Mediterranean Center for Marine and Environmental Research (CMIMA) of the CSIC, has the main objective of providing support to the national policy of R&&I in science and marine and polar technology. The UTM is in charge of the integral management of the Sarmiento de Gamboa Oceanographic Vessel, the logistics and technological management of the Hespérides Oceanographic Research Vessel and the integral management of the vessels García del Cid and Mytilus, as well as the BAE Spanish Antarctic Base Juan Carlos I.  

Source: UTM-CSIC

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Full article (Catalan)

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1 mission = 11 dives, GEOMAR’s GIRONA500 AUVs explore Southern Italy volcanoes

One of the current users of our vehicles is GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, a world-wide leading institute of marine research based in Kiel (Germany). GEOMAR incorporated two Girona 500 vehicles to its high-performance infrastructure in underwater robotics, to be used in different research fields related to marine sciences. 

Recently, the team did an expedition to the Aeolian Islands, a volcanological active area of special interest for the geoscientists located in the Tyrrhenian sea (southern west Italy). The German research ship FS ALKOR was used to test the two Girona 500 vehicles (ANTON and LUISE) along with the submersible JAGO in investigations around the Vulcano and Stromboli volcanoes.

The goal of the mission was to study an analyze the possibilities of cooperation between vehicles in different terrains, from flat areas to rocky slopes. The scenario was ideal to test the lighting system developed by GEOMAR and integrated in the payload area of the LUISE AUV. In total, 11 dives where performed with JAGO, ANTON and LUISE.

The payload that has been developed by GEOMAR AUV team for LUISE AUV is a camera system CoraMo Mark 2 and it contains an IDS machine vision camera with 12 MP. The team has also developed a forward-looking version prepared for a mid water ecology project to photograph animals in the water column.

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Girona 500

IQUA vehicles being used by reference research centres in Europe

Girona 500 and Sparus II are autonomous hovering vehicles that can be adapted by the end-user to a wide range of applications. This feature, together with their low weight, low requirements for its operation at sea and the added value of using ROS, convert them in a very interesting base platform for research centres that want to develop their own technology. 

One of the current users of our vehicles is GEOMAR – Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, a world-wide leading institute of marine research based in Kiel (Germany). GEOMAR incorporated Girona 500 to its high-performance infrastructure in underwater robotics, to be used in different research fields related to marine sciences. 

According to the research institute, “ANTON (Geomar’s Girona 500) is extremely useful for surveys in many marine areas because it is small and handy and can be deployed from small vessels”. 

ANTON had its first assignment on the POSEIDON expedition POS526, which ran from late July to mid-August to working areas in the central North Sea and off the coast of Norway. The expedition included the manned research diving boat JAGO, among others, to observe ANTON during his firsts dive trials. ANTON did ten dives where extensive seabed datasets were collected, including CTD measures. Also, images of the seabed were acquired and they will be used for scientific studies and further technology development.

From beginning of 2019, Geomar’s fleet has a new member, LUISE, a second Girona 500 that will work with ANTON in the framework of the MOSES infrastructure, leaded by the institute.

Girona 500 and Sparus II were originally developed in the framework of different research projects at the University of Girona with the main goal of being flexible in terms of configuration, software and equipment integration. 

Since they became commercial AUVs, the vehicles have increased their capabilities and robustness, becoming an alternative to other vehicles in the market.

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