The Taiwan Ocean Research Institute (TORI) has acquired an Iver2 autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) to collect data for scientific research and improved environmental protection. The Iver2 EP42 vehicle capability includes side-scan sonar, acoustic current profiling, and a camera system along with both above and below-surface communications.
TORI has recently embarked on a four-year research project and will apply the AUV platform to multiple areas of study. The areas of concern include long-term observation of Taiwan waters; marine hazard mitigation; establishment of an ocean information database and network, ocean exploration technology and biological oceanography research. In addition, TORI hopes to gain better insight from using the Iver2 AUV to help develop and build core technologies for long-term marine environment and ecology observation, undersea-earthquake research, monitoring practices, and ocean exploration.
The Iver platform
All Iver2 AUV models come with OceanServer’s VectorMap mission planning and data presentation tool as standard, which provides geo-registered data files that can be easily exported to other software analysis tools. This unique AUV design has enabled OceanServer to carve out a very strong position in the research space for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, sensors and behavioural studies.
The VectorMap programme can input NOAA ENCs or any geo-referenced charts, maps or photo images, allowing the operator to intuitively develop AUV missions using simple point-and-click navigation.
The base vehicle gives university, government and commercial users an affordable base-platform for sensor development or survey applications in water quality, sub-surface security and general research.