Very shallow water mine countermeasures using the REMUS AUV: a practical approach yielding accurate results

For several years, the engineers of the Oceanographic Systems Laboratory have been developing a version of the REMUS autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) equipped with a Marine Sonics, Ltd. sidescan sonar. A sidescan equipped AUV allows operators to maintain a safe standoff distance from a potential minefield, and when equipped with other instrumentation provides high resolution hydrographic data as well. This paper provides a general discussion of sidescan search strategies as pertains to mine-hunting. It also describes the hardware and software interface from the vehicle and user interface to the sidescan system that allows pre-launch performance verification, and rapid post mission data analysis and exporting. results of this test are discussed and explained, including a variety of performance metrics. A practical example is provided. During August of 2000, the REMUS system participated in the US Navy exercise, "Fleet Battle Experiment-Hotel" and generated a high resolution map of a minefield covering over 3 square kilometers. The results of this test are discussed and explained, including a variety of performance metrics.