Unique Group Provides Gyro USBL to Support OceanGate’s Titanic Survey Mission

Summary of the Project  

Unique Group provided OceanGate, Inc. with a Sonardyne Gyro USBL for positioning their Titan submersible. This crewed submersible is used for expeditions to explore the wreck site of the RMS Titanic. OceanGate Inc. carried out a survey of the wreck of the Titanic to document its decay, repeatedly diving their new human-occupied submersible, Titan, to 3,858 m deep in the North Atlantic Ocean. The work involved imaging the shipwreck and portions of the debris field using the latest multi-beam sonar, subsea camera, and lighting technology.  

Client Requirement  

Long range underwater tracking and communications was a mission-critical requirement for OceanGate on their 2022 science expedition to the Titanic. 

Challenges Faced  

In the summer of 2022, OceanGate Inc. embarked on a six-week survey expedition to further document the wreck of the Titanic. The mission involved repeatedly diving their human-occupied submersible, Titan, on the wreck, in 3,860 m water depth in the North Atlantic.

The success of the expedition depended on the accuracy and reliability of the ship-to-sub positioning, navigation, and communications systems. OceanGate required equipment with four key capabilities. First, for safety reasons, a two-way text communication system between the crew aboard the submersible and the support crew stationed topside throughout the dive. Second, highly accurate tracking of Titan’s lat/long and depth with automatic reporting intervals set by the topside crew. Third, submersible-mounted acoustic hardware depth-hardened to at least 4,000 m. And last, the communications and tracking link needed to be maintained, at slant ranges of up to 7,000 m without interruption.

Benefits to the project from using the Sonardyne Gyro USBL

Deployment of sensor platforms and underwater vehicles is fundamental to undertaking science at sea and Ranger 2 USBL is the preferred choice of many of the world’s leading research institutes. Depending on the equipment configuration, Ranger 2 can simultaneously track multiple underwater targets to beyond 11,000 m – far in excess of OceanGate’s 7,000 m target range for the trip to the Titanic – without having to first deploy a seabed array of transponders. With Ranger 2, as soon as the team arrives on site, they can deploy the equipment, vehicles and begin work – maximizing precious research ship time.

But Ranger 2 is more than an acoustic tracking system. The 6G and Wideband 2 technology platform it’s built on supports (as standard) high-speed, two-way acoustic telemetry – meaning it can communicate with, and remotely configure, seabed equipment and robotic vehicles; or in the case of a crewed submersible like Titan, send and receive text messages to and from her crew.

Research projects often involve using a vessel of opportunity, where equipment like Ranger 2 might only be installed for a matter of weeks or months. But as the precision of underwater tracking is rarely something that can be compromised, then the benefits of using Ranger 2 for a project like this begin before a vessel has left port. The Unique Group pre-tested the all-in-one transceiver, Gyro USBL, (which can also be used as a modem) which is perfect for installation on a temporary over-the-side mount, yet delivers the same precision as a permanent installation, which must be carefully planned and executed.

All systems and equipment mounted on Titan are engineered to withstand the enormous pressures of the deepest oceans and AvTrak 6 is maybe the most capable option available. Used in conjunction with Ranger 2 USBL, AvTrak 6 combines the functions of transponder, transceiver, and seabed-to-surface data telemetry link in one low power unit that has been designed to meet the requirements of a wide variety of autonomous and crewed vehicle mission scenarios. It was the natural choice to support Titan and theirseries of dives to 4,000 m.

Bob Shuman, COO of OceanGate, said, “The Unique Group provided Sonardyne Ranger2 USBL to work with the AvTrak 6 which allowed our organization to carry out an extremely successful series of crewed submersible dives during which we observed all three areas of the wreck (bow, stern, and the debris field), captured many hours of 8K and 4K high- definition video and several hundred 4K still images, and shared the experience with scientists and audiences around the world.”