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Greensea Systems has confirmed that it has successfully carried out a demonstration of a mission to locate buried munitions in the surf zone. The UXO survey was undertaken with the Bayonet 250 AUGV (autonomous underwater ground vehicle), and demonstrated the power and flexibility of the OPENSEA robotics platform to rapidly integrate and deploy a new sensor suite for the task.
The Bayonet 250 has been selected as a finalist in The Defense Innovation Unit’s (DIU) Autonomous Amphibious Response Vehicle (A2RV) program’s rapid prototyping phase. Out of 67 proposals, the Bayonet 250 crawler prototype, developed in partnership with Greensea, was chosen for its exceptional performance and potential to detect, identify, and neutralise naval mines and other explosive hazards in the challenging surf and beach landing zones.
Operating over 8 days and covering 18 square kilometers in depths of up to 10 feet, amidst wave heights of 4-6 feet in the challenging surf zone, the Bayonet 250 provided a stable and reliable platform for conducting the survey that included a towed sled equipped with White River Technology’s (WRT) marine APEX technology, seamlessly integrated into Greensea’s OPENSEA software platform. The rapid integration of the sensor sled facilitated the detection and classification of objects with a buried depth of up to 3 meters based on material composition.
Throughout the mission, the Bayonet 250 successfully identified buried targets based on burial depth and signal signature, highlighting its ability to detect and identify explosive hazards in both the surf and on beach landing zones.
Greg Schultz, Chief Technology Officer for WRT, commented: “We are very excited about the recent success of crawler-based 3DEM sensing for advanced geophysical classification of munitions in the most challenging environments like surf zones. The combination of autonomous amphibious crawlers, like the Bayonet units, and the WRT APEX dynamic electromagnetic classification arrays, appear ready to go where divers and towed systems have not been able to in the past.”
David Pearson, Program Manager at Greensea, expressed his satisfaction with the successful mission demonstration, stating: “The success of this program and our ability to operate effectively in the challenging surf zone environment is a testament to the strength of our team and our commitment to innovation. By quickly integrating a new sensor for buried UXO and munitions, mobilising an operations team, and collecting data in demanding conditions, we have demonstrated our capability to locate and address explosive hazards in one of the most dynamic and challenging operational environments.”
