Advancing Diver Navigation
After extensive testing throughout 2023, EvoLogics is proud to announce the official launch of its innovative acoustic navigation system for divers. The new system facilitates map-based navigation for divers during missions, allows for waypoint setup both pre-mission and in real time, and enables two-way communication between divers and the dive supervision team, as well as among divers themselves.
EvoLogics aimed to streamline complex underwater tasks such as search and rescue, salvage operations, recovery efforts, and cleanup operations. The Diver Navigation system enhances coordination, improves task management, and fosters efficient information sharing, ultimately increasing the effectiveness of diver operations. The battery-powered diver unit is compatible with all EvoLogics 18/34 modems and USBL-Systems. It comes with mounts to attach it either on the diver’s scuba tank or to most of the common underwater scooters. The molded unibody design of the tracker ensures broad compatibility with various diving equipment and facilitates straightforward installation.
Topside Connectivity
The diver console is a compact wrist tablet that connects to the modem tracker by cable. It provides the diver access to the SiNAPS user interface, visualizing the map of the current operations area, the positions of all divers and the support vessel, and running the text chat tool.
At the surface, the USBL buoy acts as the acoustic node for operations: the device is a mono-unit with a USBL antenna, an integrated PC running SiNAPS positioning software, a dual-antenna GNSS receiver, and a WiFi access point. Designed for mobile scenarios, the buoy ensures rapid setup and fully supports bidirectional diver tracking and message exchange.
The USBL buoy calculates diver positions using acoustic signals and displays them in the SiNAPS interface for the support team. This capability allows the surface team to monitor diver positions, communicate messages, and adjust mission waypoints as needed. Bidirectional acoustic links ensure that all mission divers have access to tracker positions.
The SiNAPS interface, akin to texting on a smartphone, enables divers to exchange short messages with each other and the surface team while tracking each other’s positions in real-time. Mission waypoints can be added before or during the mission to coordinate operations and mark discovered objects or infrastructure for further investigation.
Bio-Inspired Tech
The distinctive penguin-inspired EvoLogics Quadroin AUV, first launched in May 2021, has undergone advancement. Revealed by EvoLogics, the Quadroin 2.0 platform features a diversified platform to improve payload ability and serve more wider missions.
Developed for monitoring and surveying, the fast and maneuverable Quadroin leverages EvoLogics’ expertise in low-drag bionic design. Dr. Rudolf Bannasch, EvoLogics founder, delved into years of research on penguin locomotion, resulting in the AUV’s remarkable hydrodynamic properties. With a penguin-inspired low-drag shape, the Quadroin achieves speeds of up to 10 knots, minimizing energy consumption and enabling versatile deployments.
EvoLogics’ new innovative acoustic navigation system for divers. (Image credit: EvoLogics)
The initial series of Quadroin prototypes, developed in collaboration with Hereon for the Helmholtz Association’s MOSES initiative, focuses on monitoring ocean eddies. These vehicles are equipped with sensors for collecting geo-referenced data on various physical water parameters, including temperature, pressure, oxygen, conductivity, and fluorescence, at different depths.
In subsequent years, EvoLogics conducted extensive enhancements to the Quadroin, aiming to integrate a broader array of instruments into the payload. The unique shape and hydrodynamics, size and weight limitations, compatibility considerations, and optimization for manufacturing necessitated a redesign of the internal layout, integration of updated components, and a reconfiguration of the sensors systems.
March’s Exclusive Look
Oceanology International 2024 is the launch platform for the Quadroin 2.0: EvoLogics engineers will report on the platform’s milestone and present the upgraded vehicle through a live on-site demonstration.
The Oceanology International 2024 Dockside Demonstrations schedule hosts three EvoLogics live sessions at 2:30 pm on March 12–14, 2024 at Cabin 1.
In these sessions, EvoLogics will showcase the significance of integrated systems that synergize various technologies to optimize underwater operations. The planned act one features a coordinated mission where EvoLogics’ new diver navigation system collaborates with the Sonobot 5 uncrewed surface vehicle.
Attendees will witness the team deploying the Sonobot 5 to detect a predefined underwater object. Prior training of the EvoLogics AI object recognition system for this specific object class enables its automatic detection in the side-scan sonar feed, with real-time display to the shore operator during the mission.
After “discovery” in the side-scan sonar feed, the object’s location is transmitted to SiNAPS, the EvoLogics positioning software tracking a diver, as a point of interest to investigate during the dive. In SiNAPS onshore, the event attendees observe the diver move towards the object and confirm its location over the text chat.
The second part of each session focuses on the Quadroin AUV—engineers report on the choices made for the upgraded AUV platform, followed by a live demonstration of the Quadroin navigating the Royal Victoria Dock.
EvoLogics, driven by a commitment to continuous innovation, aims to advance the field and pioneer underwater technology. At Oi24, EvoLogics welcomes the community to engage in in-depth discussions about the company’s portfolio, covering underwater communication, positioning, networking, robotics, and AI solutions, and discover how these solutions can address the most challenging tasks in both industry and science.
To find out more visit EvoLogics in stand G300 at Oi24 or dive in online: evologics.de
This feature appeared in Environment, Coastal & Offshore (ECO) Magazine’s 2024 edition Marine Exploration, to read more access the magazine here.
