Although Iceland has most recently been in the spotlight because of its volcanoes and bankers, both of which, as the saying goes, are uncontrollable, an Icelandic autonomous underwater vehicle named the Gavia has also been recieving considerable attention for its novel design, technology and approach to small AUVs.
Read the full article published as the Cover Story in the June issue of International Ocean Systems magazine.

Commercial Survey Caspian Sea

For several weeks in June of 2009, NCS Survey of Aberdeen, UK, successfully utilized a Gavia AUV for commercial survey operations in the Caspian Sea for both pipeline inspection and hydrographic surveys. During the operation approximately 90 kilometers of pipeline was inspected using a Marine Sonics side scan sonar (SSS) and a Geoacoustic Geoswath Multi-beam Echosounder  (MBES) and around 100 line kilometers survey performed in a local harbor. This operation was the first commercial deployment within a Gavia of the AutoTracker, an autonomous pipeline inspection tool for AUVs from SeeByte, which NCS Survey operates.