| Summary: | In March and April 2010, an International Submarine Engineering (ISE) Explorer Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), built for Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), was deployed to Canada’s High Arctic. Its mission was to undertake under-ice bathymetric surveys in support of Canada’s United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) Outer Continental Shelf claim. During this deployment several underice records were broken and several new technologies were demonstrated. This achievement was in part the result of the development work that ISE and Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) undertook from 1993 to 1996 on the Theseus AUV during the Spinnaker program. During this program Theseus successfully completed two 200 km under-ice missions from CFS Alert on Ellesmere Island. NRCan’s AUV is an ISE Explorer class vehicle, with several innovative additions to make it suitable for Arctic survey work. Most notable are a 4000 m depth rated variable ballast system, a 1500 Hz long range homing system, and under ice charging and data transfer capabilities. A Short Range Localization (SRL) system was also developed for close range positioning. The homing and SRL systems were developed by Canadian defense scientists and engineers at DRDC. The Explorer’s range was extended to approximately 400 km by adding an additional hull section to accommodate extra batteries. The Main Camp near Borden Island (78°13.50’N, 112°38.87’W) was the launch site for the AUV. It was launched from an 8 m by 2.5 m ice-hole, cut through 2 – 3 m of thick ice. After several test dives its first mission was a transit to a Remote Camp, over 300 km to the northwest. The AUV autonomously homed into the Remote Camp and was successfully docked at the ice-hole where, without being removed from the water, it was charged and survey data was downloaded, all through a 1.5 m square ice hole. Subsequently, a second survey mission greater than 300 km in round trip length was undertaken, after which the AUV returned back to the Remote Camp. Finally, the ...
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