Locating services in deep-sea environments

Vast areas of deep ocean are remote and difficult to access but they may host small objects of scientific and/or economic interest.

One of ABYSSA's core activities is to accurately locate such objects

Depending on the altitude at which our Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) travel, we can draw up regional or local maps of the sea floor, and detect small objects by deploying the various onboard sensors (acoustic and optical sensors and environmental probes).

ABYSSA can then use these to pinpoint the location of an isolated object even more accurately. This may include locating a shipwreck, thousands of which cover the sea floor, or a shipping container that has been lost at sea. According to the World Shipping Council, an estimated 2,600 to 10,000 containers are lost every year. We can also look for an aircraft’s black box, to find out why it crashed, or even radioactive waste deliberately dumped or accidentally discharged at sea.

We can also locate linear objects, such as cables, pipelines or outlet channels, or even natural sites featuring remarkable geological, magnetic, topographic or thermal anomalies, as well as the occasional biocoenosis.

ABYSSA's multi-scale approach is based on our new deep ocean exploration protocols.