An OFG Slf-Compensating Magnetometer (SCM) system was implemented on a REMUS 100 AUV at Florida Atlantic University and used to conduct field tests for the localisation of subsurface magnetic anomalies, in support of a project in adaptive sensing using multiple AUVs. The work is funded by NSWC-Panama City under the Naval Engineering Education Consortium program. The implementation was carried out by MS ocean engineering student Harryel Philippeaux, under the direction of the project director, Professor Manhar Dhanak. The SCM was mounted on the top of the vehicle (see photo) and ancillary components, including a compass and a PC-104 processing computer, were housed in a custom pressure vessel that served as a payload extension of the AUV. The payload computer hosted the SCM software, a custom localisation algorithm, and a Windows console application that served as ‘middleware’. Preliminary testing in a lake appears to show that the AUV/SCM system is a suitable choice for detection of magnetic anomalies from a mobile platform.
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