iXblue’s new Gaps M5 USBL has been selected by global rental company Subsea Technology & Rentals (STR) as an addition to their existing inventory of marine and subsea technology from leading manufacturers. The easy-to-export Gaps M5 is a high-accuracy, high-performance solution for tracking of subsea assets such as AUVs (autonomous underwater vehicles) and ROVs (remotely operated vehicles).
As the latest addition to iXblue’s USBL product range, Gaps M5 is a compact and omnidirectional USBL system that offers accurate location, positioning and tracking of subsea assets. It integrates a high-end Attitude and Heading Reference System (AHRS) that provides stable heading, roll and pitch compensation and a true north reference.
The ready-to-use and calibration-free system provides accuracy of better than 0.5% at ranges of up to 995m operating range. The USBL system is extremely efficient in shallow water and horizontal conditions, and is suitable for a wide variety of tracking operations.
Scott Johnstone, Group Managing Director at STR, commented: “We’ve been offering iXblue products for over 20 years now, including their INS, AHRS and USBL systems. As a global leader whose proven technology is recognized worldwide within our industry, their systems are great assets to have and they’ve always met our customers’ requirements. USBL, in particular, are critical components of our rental offer, and the new Gaps M5 is perfectly suited to our customers’ needs and jobs. Our new Gaps M5 is already being utilised by our customers on geophysical surveys for offshore windfarms site investigation, and other tracking and towed services and we received very positive feedback on the performance, lightweight, and compact nature of the new system.”
Régis Blomme, sales director at iXblue, said: “We’re very happy to see our latest Gaps USBL system already benefitting subsea operations worldwide and we want to thank STR for their longstanding partnership and continued trust in our navigation and positioning technology. We now look forward to supplying STR with other high end products in order to meet their demanding requirements as they strive to always offer the latest industry solutions available to their customers.”
