Security served by through ice communication trials
The €1.8m, two year project will deliver the world’s first wireless, through ice wireless location and communication system.
Homeland security in northern climes will be among the beneficiaries of field trials successfully completed by WFS Technologies of Scotland and Kongsberg Maritime Subsea of wireless communication through ice.
The trials conducted earlier this year in Horten, Norway, demonstrated wireless communication from sea water, through ice and into the air using radio frequency (RF) technology. Field trial observations matched theoretical simulations and WFS predicts it can achieve communications through meters of ice and then up to 1km in air.
Wireless communications with AUVs and sensors under ice is a breakthrough that is also anticipated to deliver substantial cost savings in environmental monitoring, exploration and production activities in the ice regions of Canada, the USA, Scandinavia, and Russia. The use of AUVs under ice will greatly increase knowledge about topography, oceanography, marine life and marine systems in arctic areas.
These trials are part of collaboration between WFS and Kongsberg Maritime to develop a wireless system for location of and communication with the HUGIN AUV in ice conditions. The €1.8m, two year project will deliver the world’s first wireless, through ice wireless location and communication system.
The through ice radio location system will enable a surface vessel, a helicopter or an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to communicate with and locate an AUV under the ice at up to 1km range, and will be a key component in removing risk of under ice AUV operations.
In addition to monitoring under ice to protect homeland security related assets, other pplications of the system are environmental monitoring, with AUVs deploying sensors under ice and harvesting data as well as the monitoring of pipelines and other assets to support primitive condition monitoring and intervention repairs for the oil and gas industry.
The recent through ice communications trials at Horten in Norway have shown excellent agreement between measured and simulated results. Next steps for the project are to extend the range of communication and to integrate the technology with sub ice vehicles.
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