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Explained by Offshore Sensing: USV with echosounder

Written by Author | October 31, 2025

USV with echosounder

A USV with echosounder carries an acoustic sensor to map biomass, plankton layers, and structure. A wind-propelled Sailbuoy runs planned transects for weeks to months, averages ~3 kn, and uses Iridium for control, telemetry, and alerts. The result is persistent fisheries acoustics with fewer crewed vessel-days.

What is a USV with echosounder?

The echosounder emits sound pulses and reads returns (echograms) to infer targets in the water column. Wind provides propulsion; solar powers electronics. With Iridium, operators adjust routes, check health, and receive summaries while the USV logs raw data for post-mission QA and analysis.

Why does USV with echosounder matter offshore?

Continuous transects capture variability that short surveys miss. Endurance up to 12 months and geofenced routing enable long lines and repeat passes, improving trend detection while cutting mobilizations, CO₂, and HSE exposure.

Can data be aligned with crewed surveys?

Yes. Plan overlapping transects and maintain calibration/QA to compare time-aligned datasets.

How are data delivered?

Key parameters can be previewed over Iridium; full raw files are retrieved after recovery or via scheduled transfer paths where practical.