NAVANTIA and SAES in a pioneering proposal for underwater monitoring and warning for Ports 4.0.

SAES and Navantia has presented to the Ports 4.0 Program a project that would provide its clients with new capabilities in the submarine environment, thus expanding the capabilities of the USV Vendaval with respect to the model that already operates in the Port of Ceuta.

The proposed solution will allow the real-time monitoring of underwater noise and the estimation of the origin of the source, facilitating evaluations with the aim to compliance with environmental control regulations. Likewise, the solution will allow alerting of the existence of risky objects for navigation and controlling waste or spills in port facilities by monitoring the bottoms of channels, approaches and anchorages.

Additionally, the system will send acoustic signals and warning messages to not be allowed divers that entering into a protected area.

The USV Vendaval of Navantia is the first unmanned surface vehicle marketed and operational in real missions in Spain. It has been incorporated into Navantia Environmental Monitoring and Control System for Ceuta Port Authority.

SAES provides underwater systems and artificial intelligence technologies

The project will include multiple SDH Smart Digital Hydrophones, designed and manufactured by SAES, a side scan sonar and a deterrent system installed at the Navantia’s Vendaval USV

The deployment of multiple SDHs will allow, not only a better coverage of the area for the monitoring of environmental noise, but also the estimation of the origin (direction) of the source, by signal processing techniques.

To the integration of the side scan sonar in the USV, it will be added the use of artificial intelligence technologies (such as neural networks) applied to the sonar image processing to facilitate the detection and classification of objects in the background.

The integration of the Deterrent System in the USV Vendaval seeks to achieve a more compact solution of the system that facilitates the deployment of this equipment from small vessels (even smaller than Navantia’s USV) such as ROVs and Intervention UUVs.