Deep Sea Crawler VIATOR drove autonomously in his garage (MANSIO) when tested in the Baltic Sea

Viator test 4 (02.04. – 05.04.2016)

On the ALKOR expedition 474 the MANSIO-VIATOR system was successfully tested again. Under the lead of GEOMAR and with participation of employees of the ROBEX partners AIRBUS DS, DFKI and DLR, the system was used in a field test in the south-western Baltic. Under different test series different marker systems, odometry and autonomous docking operations were tested under realistic conditions.

Here, for the first time the autonomous docking was successfully demonstrated from a distance of 10m. Since this worked under difficult conditions, the future test campaigns – in which the interplay of VIATOR and MANSIO will be further optimized – are optimistically expected, especially with regard to a successful demonstration mission aboard the Polarstern in autumn 2017.