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Attention:

The need of the system has to be announced in cruise planning document "Einsatzplanung" prior to the cruise.

The mounting of USBL antenna is executed by ships crew, the operation of the system must be executed by experienced scientific staff.

GAPS underwater communication is conducted by using various frequencies, interferences with simultaneously operating Echo Sounders are possible.

Attention: Submarine cable must be connected and device must be submerged in water before activating GAPS.

Summary

The Global Acoustic Positioning System (GAPS) combines an ultra-short baseline (USBL) acoustic positioning system and an inertial navigation system (INS) in the same housing to provide accurate position of any subsea object supplied with a transponder. Operating range is up to 4000m water depth with accuracy 0.2 percent of the distance to the object. The registration angle of 200 degree also enables position registration in shallow water.


Manufacturer iXblue
Model OIGAPS-Carbone, PN: 430 9000
Serial No. 097
Type ultra short baseline positioning systems
SENSOR-Link

Transducer Frequency:

Contacts

Name Institution Role
Ralf Krocker Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research Engineer In Charge

Components

The system consists of the GAPS antenna itself, mounting for installation at the ships bottom, the Easy Connect Box (ECB) and monitoring software "GAPS MMI - Man Machine Interface". The transponders can be mounted to winch wire or to a submarine vehicle or other submarine object.

GAPS is a bi-directional acoustic positioning system, which communicates between ship (antenna) and one or more transponders. Positions of the transponders are determined relative to the ship or absolute in geographic frame. GAPS must be installed with custom-built mounting and is operated below the ship's hull. It is deployed via the Hydrographenschacht.

Two acoustic transponders (IXBLUE/Oceano MT832E-R and MT832E-HD-R) are available onboard RV Heincke. The transponders must mechanically be attached to underwater objects or vehicles. The transponders are synchronized to the GAPS and can be operated in transponder-mode (acoustic transmission and receiving) or in responder-mode (electric transmission and acoustic receiving; cables and plugs for responder-mode are not available on board). For transponder MT832E-R exists a winch cable mounting.

The Easy Connect Box (ECB) is a small interface to connect GAPS, external GPS receiver, PC with MMI-software and data management system DShip. It is switched on via the switch at the back of the ECB. The switch on the front is for the GAPS itself.

The GAPS MMI - Man Machine Interface - Software starts the GAPS and tracks the underwater transponders. It is installed on the CTD-PC in the Mess- und Registrierraum.

GAPS is connected to the GPS receiver on-board. Still there is an extra GPS receiver with accessories in case you want to use GAPS somewhere else.


Name Model Serial Number SENSOR-
Link
Oceano Transponder MT832E-HD-R 347 MT832E-HD-R 347
Oceano Transponder MT832E-R 346 MT832E-R 346

Position

InfoElectronics of the GAPS system are located in the server rack in the Mess- and Registrierraum and software is installed on the CTD-PC. The GAPS is deployed via the Hydrographenschacht.

Data logging, storage and archiving

Logged parameters

Parameter Sensor Output Type Unit
heading attitude deg
latitude latitude deg
longitude longitude deg
altitude attitude m
roll attitude deg
pitch attitude deg
transponder number index unknown
x-coordinate distance m
y-coordinate distance m
z-coordinate distance m
depth depth m
month date and time unknown
time in hours date and time unknown
year date and time unknown
day date and time unknown

Central geographical ship's position and time standard

Rawdata storage on board

DShip

Data archiving on land

Documentation

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