Enhanced hydrographic capability for RV Solander

Edition 2 | 2017

Creating high quality models of our tropical underwater habitats requires measurements to be precisely geolocated.  This can be difficult to achieve from an unstable platform such as a ship in a moving ocean. In March 2017, RV Solander’s geospatial systems were greatly enhanced with the installation of an Applanix POS MV (Position and Orientation System for Marine Vessels) OceanMaster.  

The POS MV is a six degrees of freedom positioning and orientation solution.  The system will accurately compensate for ship motion while providing a high-resolution geolocation of the ship’s sensors, which is an essential input for scientific quality hydrographic and acoustic systems. Specialists at Acoustic Imaging  and AIMS engineers assessed the POS MV system performance through sea trials off the coast of Darwin, and it was verified as providing high accuracy GPS positioning while measuring ship roll and pitch within 0.01° in open ocean waters.

The POS MV OceanMaster system will provide a high-resolution reference for AIMS’ acoustics-based research activities multibeam surveys of our oceans and benthic surveys using AIMS underwater-unmanned systems.

AIMS research vessel Solander at anchor near Marat Island in north west Australia