Norwegian survey company invests in USBL system

Sonardyne wideband acoustic technology has been chosen by Artec Subsea AS of Norway to support its subsea positioning and offshore survey activities.

The purchase of the Ranger USBL (ultra-short baseline) acoustic positioning system was made through Aquadyne AS, the Norwegian representative of Sonardyne International, and follows an earlier investment by Artec in Fusion USBL hardware.Developed to be easy to set-up and use, Ranger is the newest addition to Sonardyne’s USBL product family. It is said to provide a cost-effective solution for hydrographic survey and DP reference tasks in up to 2,000m of water and incorporates Sonardyne’s innovative wideband signal technology, enabling faster, more reliable and more accurate subsea navigation.

Following delivery and installation, the Ranger system was immediately set to work providing ROV positioning on a cable route survey off northern Norway.

Artec Subsea’s managing director, Tore Brekke, says that he chose the system after being impressed by its specifications and performance during testing. “Now that we are using Ranger, we are very happy as the positioning it is providing is proving very stable,” he added. “The system’s portability means that we can use it on a wide range of ROV and towfish-based projects including high precision seabed mapping, offshore construction and site surveys.”

In its standard configuration, Ranger can be used with a wide range of transponders including the new Sonardyne Wideband Sub-Mini (WSM) and DPT. With the addition of the Legacy pack, the range of transponder options can be increased to include HPR 300 and HiPAP frequencies.

An advanced pack increases the number of tracked targets from four to 10 and offers a one second position update rate independent of water depth.OSJ