A demo of Smart Sound Connect Subsurface was hosted at Plymouth Marine Laboratory earlier this week.
The capabilities of the UK’s premier marine autonomy testbed – Smart Sound Plymouth – continue to grow with the expansion of its real-world testing and demonstration environment for marine autonomy and advanced technologies.
Smart Sound Connect Subsurface (SSCS) operates beneath the ocean surface, using an array of nodes positioned on the seabed, to enable real-time tracking and telemetry for deployed payloads, autonomous platforms, and subsea technologies.
This is allowing scientists and businesses to conduct trials of navigation, communication, sensing, and data transfer systems under operational marine conditions.
The new system also endeavors to serve as an early step towards permanent subsea infrastructure capable of overcoming the persistent challenges in underwater technology, namely knowing exactly where something is and communicating with it without a physical cable.
The development of SSCS has been achieved through a three-year £1.2million project led by the University of Plymouth in partnership with Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) (which leads and operates Smart Sound Plymouth) and delivered by underwater technology and engineering company Sonardyne.
It combines the organisations’ expertise in developing, deploying and operating novel marine technologies to deliver real-world ocean intelligence.
It also enhances the city’s reputation as a global leader in marine autonomous systems, as evidenced through its recent designation as the UK’s National Centre for Marine Autonomy.
Professor James Fishwick, Head of Innovation for Smart Sound Plymouth (Plymouth Marine Laboratory), said: “Smart Sound Plymouth is going from strength to strength. The addition of the subsurface network enables even greater integration between platforms and supports our state-of-the-art testing capabilities for autonomous vehicles and advanced technologies. It complements the high speed military-encrypted network above the surface and helps provide a fully connected environment. This successful technology demonstration further reflects Plymouth’s place as a world-leading hub for marine autonomy.”
Image: PML’s Professor James Fishwick speaking at the demonstration this week. As Head of Innovation at Smart Sound Plymouth, Professor Fishwick leads scientific excellence and technological advancement in marine autonomy.
Dr Lilian Lieber, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Plymouth, said: “SSCS provides a unique opportunity to test new ocean observing technologies. For me, its value lies in turning prototypes and field-tested technologies into trusted data streams, accelerating ocean observing towards autonomous sensing and near-real-time insight. This helps turn ocean data into actionable intelligence for climate resilience, early warning and preparedness, while the infrastructure itself enables technology innovation and stronger industry collaboration.”
Showcasing the network through a multi-robot demo
The first major test of Smart Sound Connect Subsurface (SSCS) was completed during a live, multi-marine surface and subsea robotic platform demonstration earlier this week ahead of the Ocean Tech Expo event hosted by Maritime UK South West.
A key element of SSCS is the seabed node array, which provides absolute positioning and communications using passive Ultra-Short BaseLine (USBL) technology for testing underwater systems in a real-world highly characterised testing environment.
During the demonstration, the University’s Seaber autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) navigated using only the seabed node array.
At the surface, a PIONEER uncrewed surface vessel (USV) from Plymouth-based ACUA Ocean tracked and controlled an AUV from Southampton-based ecoSUB using a Sonardyne Ranger 2 Gyro USBL positioning system on the USV.
The USV also wirelessly harvested data from a permanently deployed Sonardyne Origin 600 acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) in the SSCS, which also transmits real-time data to shore – and a live internet feed as part of the Western Channel Observatory – via the long-running L4 oceanographic monitoring station.
In addition, marine software engineering firm Marine AI showed the ability to continue navigating, even when GNSS drops out, using Sonardyne’s SPRINT-Nav, based on trials in the SSCS earlier this year.
The demonstrations were viewed live by guests from the UK and overseas from within PML’s onshore remote operations centre at its campus in Plymouth.
Geraint West, Business Development Advisor at Sonardyne, said, “This ability to test and accelerate marine autonomous system innovation in a known environment with the type of infrastructure we now have in the SSCS is a real boost not just for Plymouth. The demonstration had interest from around the UK and internationally, with visitors from North America and Asia and from a wide range of stakeholders, military, commercial, science and industry. It just shows the reputation Plymouth now has and continues to build for marine autonomy, thanks to the environment, ecosystem and collaboration we have in the city and on the sound.”