Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Evaluated by French Navy

ECA GROUP’s A18D Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) has been evaluated by the French Directorate General of Armaments (DGA), the French Navy and the Naval Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service (Shom) as part of the Future Hydrographic and Oceanographic Capacity (CHOF) program to update and develop France’s current capacity for oceanographic and hydrographic data acquisition and processing.

Embarked on the French Navy’s Offshore Support & Assistance Vessel (BSAM) Rhône, the A18D AUV performed a variety of missions to precisely map the relief and sea beds down to 3000m depth, in the currents and swell of the Atlantic Ocean.

The example of the A18D tested showed a high level of reliability and proved to be easy to install and operate, with its optimized size-to-weight ratio (5.7m-780kg) and its intuitive user interface.

With ECA GROUP’s supervision, the onboard crews of the DGA, the French Navy and the Shom were able to take charge of the AUV and be autonomous at all stages of the mission: from the preparation, launching, supervision of the measurement campaigns, up to recovering the vehicle and the data obtained.

These trials have allowed the A18D’s maturity to be measured. Moreover, the richness of the feedback allowed the teams to evaluate the potential of using a drone to accompany and enrich hydrooceanography missions. The quality of the very high resolution images acquired by the A18D was also recognized.