Euronaval Online 2020: ECA Group has developed a full range of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles.

Company ECA Group develops and manufactures a full range of AUVs (Autonomous Underwater Vehicles) designed to carry out deep ocean survey and protection missions. At the digital edition of Euronaval 2020, ECA displays its full range of AUVs including the A9 and A18.

A18-M is the new-generation mid-size AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) developed by ECA Group (Picture source ECA Group)

ECA Group's Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, A9, A18 or A3000 AUV products, offer advanced capabilities such as high-resolution imagery, endurance and accurate navigation enabling to perform periodically seabed inspections to automatically detect and locate suspicious objects (mines, EOD...) from shallow to deep water, 3,000 m depth.

With its A18 AUV range, ECA Group has developed a family of AUVs as the best balance for compactness, endurance, performance, modularity, innovation and competitiveness.

The A18-M is the new-generation mid-size AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) developed by ECA Group to meet the challenging requirements of underwater mine counter-measures. It is designed for Mine Counter Measures missions can operate autonomously in the close vicinity of the smartest mines without triggering them, while keeping crew out of the danger zone.

Due to its very high area coverage rate of 2km2/hr, very large areas (20-40km2 depending on transit distance) can be covered in a fraction of the time of legacy assets with reduced risk to personnel and with far superior image quality, due to it's high stability which makes this AUV much less affected by waves than a surface ship or a towed system.

The A18 range, which covers depths up to 3 000 m, has outstanding navigation accuracy and stability allowing to obtain high-resolution images precisely geo-referenced. Confirming that the A18 fulfills defense and security missions as well as missions for civil applications such as inspection or cartography, ECA Group recently delivered an A18D to a scientific player.

A9-E is the configuration of ECA Group A9 man-portable Autonomous Underwater Vehicle. (Picture source ECA)

The A9-M is the configuration of ECA Group A9 men portable Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, AUV, dedicated to defense and security applications. This underwater drone has been designed to meet STANAG 1364 requirement: its acoustic and magnetic signatures are minimized in order not to trigger any underwater mines when doing the mine warfare survey. Its main function is Mine Like Objects detection and even classification depending on environmental conditions and seabed type in particular.

The A9M is a Man-portable AUV, it can be easily deployed using small crafts, rigid-hulled inflatable boats (RHIBs) and other unmanned surface vessels (USVs). Mission preparation, deployment and recovery take only few minutes. It is equipped with an energy unit, which has the capacity to attain a maximum speed of 5kt and navigate at a nominal speed of 3kt. it can offer an endurance of up to 20 hours when fitted with two energy sections.

A9-M is a reliable solution integrating a complete operational system including a comprehensive software suite for mission planning, real-time mission monitoring as well as data post-processing and report generation. In compliance with standard requests, this map oriented software suite can read or generate formats such as XYF, SEG, SEGY or TRA to make the most of the data collected throughout the mission.

ECA Group’s latest innovative AUV milestone is the ultra-deepwater AUV. Designed and produced in collaboration with FREMER (French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea), this AUV features numerous new technologies to accomplish disruptive mission scenarios associating with long-range multi-sensor surveying with event-driven close-to-seafloor hovering for optical ground trusting and local inspection. Designed for exploration of the deep ocean, it operates down to 6000 meters’ ocean depth for up to 48 hours.