Image provided by Fugro.

Fugro has announced its RAMMS bathymetric LiDAR system for coastal seafloor surveys.

The firm claims that RAMMS (Rapid Airborne Multibeam Mapping System) offers best-in-class point cloud densities and depth penetration for nearshore coastal mapping.

Commenting on the launch, Ed Saade, president of Fugro USA, described a recent survey the firm completed with the new sensor.

“We believe RAMMS will bring significant value to hydrographic organisations, coastal zone/floodplain managers and engineers,” he said.

“It can achieve 3-Secchi disk depth penetration at a higher observation density than any comparable system on the market – and we’ve recorded seafloor depths as deep as 42 metres during a recent survey,” he said, citing a hydrographic charting demonstration project covering 165 square kilometres recently carried out in Belize.

Developed in partnership with Areté Associates, RAMMS utilises push-broom laser technology, based on military mine-detection techniques. Fugro says that the sensor’s compact size makes depkyment on unmanned fixed-wing aircraft an ideal deployment, and claims rapid processing and transfer times.

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