Hydrodron — New Step for Professional Hydrography for Restricted Waters

Hydrographic surveys in restricted areas are becoming increasingly important, but often impossible to carry out with conventional hydrographic vessels. Presumably in this case an employment of unmanned vehicles is the only reasonable solution. As restricted water areas include, among others: harbours, roadsteads, rivers or lakes. The HydroDron platform, due to its mobility, can operate in the above-mentioned areas. It is adapted to perform hydrographic survey missions in the field of bathymetric measurements, sonar measurements and others in two modes: remote control or autonomous. Furthemore, HydroDron is multi-variant, which allows any configuration of measurement systems to relieve the ship, along with the reduction of research costs. Selected measurement systems were analyzed: PingDSP 3DSS-DX-450, EdgeTech 6205, Klein HydroChart3500 [1, 2] and integrated inertial systems: SBG Ekinox 2-D, Applanix POS MV WaveMaster. The equipment which is part of the HydroDron platform is configured to minimize the human contribution while surveying on restricted water areas.