Aqua Vision enjoys a productive and pleasant collaboration with the Flemish government (AMDK, Afdeling Kust) which has been running for many years. In this time we have worked together on a variety of interesting projects such as developing an operational current model of the Belgian coast, analysing recorded ADCP data and monitoring the dynamic Zwin nature reserve with regular bathymetric and current surveys.

Our latest achievement is setting up and providing an (unmanned) autonomous survey vessel (ASV) integrated with a single beam echo sounder to carry out depth measurements. The draught is only 30 cm so it can access relatively shallow waters.

 The ASV is equipped with an SBG Ellipse in a dual antenna set up which provides RTK GNSS positioning to within 2 cm as well as real time heave, heading, roll and pitch information to an accuracy of less than 0.1 degrees. With speeds of up to 10 Knots (18 Km/h) delivered by two dual brushless engines, the ASV can carry out a survey for 3 hours using power supplied by an exchangeable battery.

This innovative system enables AMDK to perform safe, efficient and environmentally friendly hydrographic measurements. More information on this project is available on the AMDK blog.