Working towards seafloor and underwater iceberg mapping with a Slocum glider

This paper reports on the integration and evaluation of a Tritech Micron mechanical scanning sonar into a Slocum underwater glider. The intend is to use the Slocum glider with the scanning sonar, to conduct seafloor and iceberg mapping tasks. The mechanical scanning sonar is installed in the extended, free flooded area of nose of the glider. After the successful integration, initial field trials were conducted in order to evaluate the performance in both seafloor surveying, and iceberg mapping modes. To achieve optimal performance, tuning of sonar parameters and vehicle trajectory control becomes significant. The performance of the vehicle and sonar are investigated in the field. Due to the transmission power absorbed by the extended nose cone, backscatter intensity is reduced, and receiver gain had to be increased, when compared to uncovered operations. With the experience gained from the initial field trial, areal surveys and autonomous iceberg mapping missions will be conducted in the future.