KONGSBERG's New HiPAP Portable Acoustic Positioning System

KONGSBERG’s new HiPAP 102P Portable Acoustic Positioning System for ultra-deep water operations will be shown for the first time at Ocean Business 2017 (stands N1 & P2) this week. Providing full ocean depth positioning and modem capability, HiPAP 102P is designed for accurately tracking ROVs, tow fish and other subsea targets.

HiPAP 102P is the new portable variant of the HiPAP 102 low frequency acoustic positioning system, which is already established as a highly accurate, reliable and flexible multi-purpose ultra-deep water acoustic positioning system. HiPAP 102P operates in SSBL mode to full ocean depths, where it measures the distance and direction to subsea transponders and computes a 3D position in local or geographical coordinates.

Designed as a portable system offering deployment platform flexibility, HiPAP 102P is easy to install on surface vessels without the need for through hull deployment. It is delivered with the HiPAP Acoustic Positioning Operator Station (APOS), which provides the full range of functions for acoustic positioning and data communication, while KONGSBERG’s proprietary Cymbal digital acoustic protocol provides accurate position and robust telemetry.

The system has built in motion sensors enabling calibration free compensation of vessel roll and pitch, with calibration only need for gyro compass heading alignment. The system can be interfaced to the vessel heading sensor and GNSS system and data output to users is available in established formats. Customers can also choose the completely calibration free HiPAP 102P-MGC, which contains a built-in heading and attitude sensor, while the HiPAP 102P-5 has its own MRU 5 Motion Sensor.

HiPAP 102P also has full LBL calibration and positioning capabilities and can be used for position box in, calibration and positioning. It features a wide range of transponder channels and cNODE transponder models for depths down to 7000 meters and beyond.

The HiPAP 102P extends KONGSBERG’s series of advanced acoustic positioning systems. The technology, using transducers with multiple elements and beamforming, provides extremely high internal redundancy, reliability and a high degree of directivity. The same advanced transducer technology is utilized across the entire HiPAP family, together with digital acoustic signal processing, making HiPAP the most accurate and reliable SSBL system available.