Page 27 - Auv News Today

At that point you can actually start to light the environment and then take deep water video or still pictures. so that technology exists. its been down deeper than where they think mh 370 is it but it will be some time before we get that. every step it gets slower. putting an rov down is even slower than an auv. you have to know what youre looking for. >> why arent we using more than one bluefin? >> these are pretty rare capabilities. the u.s. navy has some vehicles, some private companies have...

So it is the equivalent of exploring the interspace of our own planet. >> it seems to move along so slowly. is it frustratinfrustrating? >> it is frustrating. sonar is deployed in one of two ways, either an auv or a towed slid. auvs are very good in some applications for getting high resolution imagery of small areas but a towed away would produce perhaps 100 miles a day rather than the 15 were expecting from the bluefin. >> you traveled down to see the titanic in something different than the bl...

Using sight scan sonar it searches for things that dont belong beneath the side. what is side scan sonar? >> it is an acoustic technology based on reflection of the sound rather than reflections of light. >> reporter: the autonomous underwater vehicle, an auv, is gathering information to create a map of the sea floor. this time its the bottom of a massachusetts reservoir, but it could be the depths of the indian ocean. >> the sights can consist of an electronics package inside the vehicle, basic...

At the same time, you dont believe thats the only one. you think others should be introduced to the scene. >> the tool that is going to be used is side scan sonar and you can deploy it one of two ways. you can put it on an auv or you can tow it through the ocean on a towed sledder and the advantage is that they can be deployed very quickly but they have limited range. the bluefin might search something like 30 miles a day whereas a towed aray may search 100 miles a day. its a question of scale. ...

We did this cross pattern, so we pulled in the sonar file, went to the location and got a better high def image of the car. >> reporter: in the case of flight 370, an auv would face a number of obstacles that could stretch this entire process out for months or years. to get a real time close-up image, this remotely operated vehicle, or rov, uses a map to visit the location. >> its pretty choppy so the visibility is quite reduced. >> and the depths of the indian ocean youd probably use sonar if t...

Auvs in until theyve exhausted the batteries. as soon as they put those in you cant look for the pings. >> you dont want to get it confused an the auv, it may be similar. than the answer, they dont do it because of the noise. on the ships anyway, when they hear it they turn everything except for the power that they need on on the ship. everything off so they can listen for it. >> when the "echo" was out there that adds more complexity to the search because it can only work when the ping is pingi...

>>. >> four pings heard in the indian ocean have narrowed the search area for flight 370. its not nearly as wide as it was before. but it is still just as deep. crews will need a new set of tools to search nearly three miles now down to the ocean floor. rosa flores has more. >> reporter: four times investigators have heard pings that are consistent with the signals coming from the missing jets data recorders. >> i believe we are searching in the right area, but we need to visually identify aircr...

Something would confirm its down there. backtracking from wreckage six weeks on isnt going to give us much information. so the real hope lies in these ping data and getting an auv down. it can cover 40 square miles in a day. thats working shallow. and were right on the limit of the depth. shes rated to 4,500 meters. were working at 4.5 kilometers, about 15,000 feet. so everything is right on the limit. it takes time to get the system down there, two or three hours just to get it down to the righ...

Think of going. complete darkness. now are searchers going to find something as small as a mailbox? how the underwater vehicle, auv, finds things in the deep. >> reporter: this probe is the latest technology that could be used to find flight mh-370. using site scan sonar it searches for things that dont belong beneath the sea what is sightscan sonar? >> acoustic technology base and reflections of >> autonomous under water vehicle is gathering information to create a map of the seafloor. this tim...

Processes the data to make the pulse and to bring back the pulse and configure it into an image. >> it moves back and forth along the surface, but some auvs can dive deep into the ocean. sonar helps identify and find debris like the submerged car. >> once we identify the target, we did this cost pattern. if we zoom in here, we pull that sonar file, went to that location and got a better high-def image. >> in the case of flight 370 an auv could face on stobstaclobst. >> this rov uses the map to v...