C & C Technologies Builds its Third AUV

Sea Technology, Mar 2006

C & C Technologies Inc. (Lafayette, Louisiana) recently began assembling its third Surveyor-class autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV).

C & C says that it expects the C-Surveyor III(TM) to be available for advanced hydrographie surveys starting in May of this year.

Tentatively slated for later this month, C & C and Kongsberg Maritime (Kongsberg. Norway) will perform sea trials in Norway before shipping the base vehicle to C & C's corporate office to install the advanced surveyor payload.

C & C system engineers will be the ones to install the company's proprietary hardware and software into the CSurveyor III.

The AUV sensors will include a multibeam echo sounder; chirp side scan sonar; chirp sub-bottom profiler; a conductivity, temperature, depth system; and a methane detector. A sub-bottom profiler onboard will be customized with narrow transmit and receive beams to permit significantly deeper seabed penetration.

According to C & C, in addition to the sub-bottom profiler, a specialized dynamically focused side scan sonar system will be installed to provide five times more resolution than traditional systems.

C & C reports that it initially plans to keep the C-Surveyor III AUV stationed in the Gulf of Mexico. This AUV is being customized to permit ultra-deep-water surveys in water depths up to 4,500 meters. The C-Surveyor I and II AUVs will rotate locations between Brazil, West Africa and the Middle East.

Thomas Chance, president of C & C Technologies, commented, "Our deep-water AUV capabilities are second to none. With this new addition to our fleet, we will be able to service all regions of the world simultaneously, while decreasing mobilization costs on international projects."

According to C & C, the C-Surveyor I and II AUVs have surveyed more than 60,000 line-kilometers worldwide for the oil and gas industry, U.S. government agencies and academic research groups.

For more information, visit www.cctechnol.com.