Cellula Robotics Successfully Completes Sea Trials of Imotus-S AUV

Cellula Robotics Ltd. has successfully completed the Imotus-S AUV sea trials. Imotus-S enables deployed vessels to easily monitor their magnetic and acoustic signature in a timely manner without having to leave station.

The sea trials, executed in the Saanich Inlet over the course of two weeks starting November 14th, served to meet various project milestones including acoustic ranging, magnetic ranging, and understanding safe distance to the vessel while maintaining control authority.

The demonstration provided training of test department staff with handling and operating the Imotus-S drone and was run with the support of a Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) Orca class vessel, PCT Cougar, as part of Cellula’s ongoing work with the Department of National Defence (DND) through the Innovative Solutions Canada (ISC) Test Stream program.

Imotus-S. Credit: Cellula Robotics

“Seeing Imotus-S being deployed from and working in tandem with the Orca vessel has been a fantastic step in Cellula’s signature measurement program” said Jacqueline Nichols, Business Development. “In conjunction with the invaluable feedback received to date, the opportunity of working closely with DND throughout the program enabled us to understand the challenges for signature measurement and management.”

“Since the Imotus-S project announcement, we’ve been looking forward to open water testing and deploying Imotus-S off an Orca class vessel” said Warren Priyadamkol, Project Engineer at DND. “With the successful completion of the sea trials, we will now focus on analyzing the data sets obtained from the AUV.”

In-depth analysis of the recorded data, including comparison to known acoustic and magnetic signatures of the Orca vessel is ongoing from the test department. Discussions and feedback from the Saanich Inlet trials will move the Imotus-S program one step closer to the establishment of an autonomous underwater ranging capability.