Multibeam Rapid Bathymetry inside the Port of Barcelona

Faster Deployment, Greater Ease of Use, and Operational Improvement over Traditional Boats. GPASEABOTS, a GPAINNOVA Group company settled in Barcelona and specializing in marine robotics and solutions for calm water operations, has shown that is possible to carry out express multibeam bathymetries in record time without compromising quality.

For that purpose, GPASEABOTS has equipped its most versatile unmanned surface vehicle (USV), the SB 100 PRO model, with Wassp S3r by Furuno-ENL, one of the most cost-effective mapping Multibeam sounders on the market. SB 100 PRO has been designed and manufactured under the "Ready to nav" concept; thanks to its ease of transportation and use, it can replace traditional boats in sheltered waters, where accuracy in the results prevails over covering large areas of water.

A further advantage of this multipurpose platform is its excellent autonomy up to 3 hours, which enables it to be used in long-lasting operations. Additionally, its autopilot function allows automation routes for data acquisition.

Problem & Solution

GPASEABOTS was recently required to carry out a Multibeam bathymetry at the Port of Barcelona, one of Europe's major ports in the Mediterranean. This kind of commercial harbour needs constant control of the draught of the entire surface of the port since this avoids running aground and problems with the boats that enter and leave the area. An SB 100 PRO was carried to the port in the boot of a common car, together with the control station, the control unit and the batteries. Once there, technicians unloaded the boot and switched on the devices, the aquatic drone, the ground station and the controller. These steps were followed by a quick connection to a Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) base or GNSS receptor, to get the RTK corrections for the GPS. After placing the USV on the water surface, which only takes 10 seconds, technicians were able to obtain high-quality results in less than 20 minutes.

During the operation, GPASEABOTS deploy 2 USVs equipped with different instrumentation each with the objective of providing a complete service for the needs of a port as large and important as the Port of Barcelona.

One of the USVs has been equipped with Wassp S3 MBES, to make Multibeam bathymetry of the harbour bottom and identify lost anchorages on the seafloor. The other USV has been equipped with a WIMO Multiparametrical probe and water sampler. We deployed the drone and collected water samples at points that we considered important because of the data we were seeing live from the ground station.