MMT 3000 - Small AUV of New Series of IMTP FEB RAS

New AUV MMT 3000 was developed in 2005 by Institute for Marine Technology Problems of Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The AUV has weight of about 200 kg and length of 2.20 m (depending of sensors configuration). Maximum diameter- 430 mm. Min and max speed range is from 1 to 5 knots. Vehicle endurance is 34 hours at speed of 3 knots and run is about 180 km. MMT 3000 employs a modular 2.6 kw-hr internally rechargeable Lithium ion battery. Navigation sensors include LBL and USBL acoustic positioning system, Doppler velocity log, on board pilotage sensors, four beams echo sounding system and GPS. Payload sensors system consists of side scan sonar, sub bottom profiler, CTD and photo system with flash lamp (option). AUV operator on support vessel is able to receive current data from AUV and send commands to the vehicle to change the mission program by acoustic communication system or RF (on the surface). This project was financed by direction of Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and intended for wide circle of scientific applications from marine biology to geological investigation on depth up to 3000 meters. The vehicle structure, program control system performance and some trial results are discussed in the paper