Autonomous underwater vehicle AQUA EXPLORER 2 for inspection of underwater cables

AQUA EXPLORER 2 (AE2) is a small-sized autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) which can autonomously track and measure burial depth of underwater cables. Since AE2 first launched in 1997, it has carried out three sea trials and five cable-inspection missions. The total length of inspected cables exceeds 400 kilometers. In this paper, the basic design concept, cable tracking performance, acoustic links, and results of sea-trials are presented.