The Navcon Navigation and Survey Control Computer System

Navcon was developed between 1978 and 1983 to provide survey control capabilities not available in commercial navigation computing systems. It consists of a 64K microprocessor board with dedicated subordinate modules for specific functions. The system is very flexible because the main administrative program is in Basic, but is very fast because all input-output and module control sub-routines are machine language. It can interface to any positioning system and has been used extensively with Syledis and Mini-ranger. Navcon computes the boat position, velocity and heading in real time and fires the seismic sound source at precise distance intervals. Navcon prints annotations on the seismic recorder and controls the chart speed so that records of accurately scaled length are produced. Through an adaptive stepping motor control, Navcon can steer the survey vessel with superb accuracy. Navcon has now performed ten marine surveys at Cape Breton Island, Lake Erie and Lake Athabasca.