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New Dimensions

September 16, 2014

WHOI senior engineer Lee Frey of the Oceanographic Systems Laboratory helps test a new multibeam sensor mounted to the underside of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) that can scan and produce a three-dimensional map of the seafloor. Multibeam sensors have been mounted to the hull of ships, but this was the first time Frey and his colleagues attached one to a REMUS 6000, which can travel at up to 3.5 knots for over 18 hours. The multibeam sensor and the vehicle’s existing sidescan sonar emit soundwaves that bounce off the seafloor back to a receiver on the device. (Photo by Ken Kostel, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)