Fleet

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The submersible capable of exploring 97% of the world's ocean floors

The Nautile is a manned submarine designed for observing and operating at depths reaching 6000 metres. Since its commissioning in 1984, it has logged nearly 1,500 dives from the research vessels Nadir or l'Atalante.

Fields of operation

• Exploration of specific zones
• High precision bathymetry and physical measurements
• Collecting samples and manipulating special tools
• Assistance for offshore assignments
• Cable and pipeline layouts and inspection
• Search, location, investigation and assistance in raising wrecks
• Assistance for submersibles in distress

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References

• French and foreign scientific teams
• Oil companies
• Foreign and French Navies
• Investigation commissions
• Expert assessments and wreck-finding (RMS Titanic, etc.)
• Archaeological research
• Foreign and French television teams

Functionality

The Nautile system provides the following functional features:

• Direct viewing, thanks to three portholes affording a wide range of vision, along with six flood lights providing
  both range and colour restitution
• Video and still camera shots
• Object detection on panoramic sonar
• Manipulation and sampling using two retractable arms and an isothermal basket
• Carrying additional equipment, special tools or increasing the sampling capacity
• Surface positioning using either a long baseline system (beacons on sea bed) or an ultra-short baseline system (sensor aboard support ship)
• In-vehicle positioning combining measurements of distance to beacons with position reckoning made using the measurements of the submersible's speed and attitutde
• Acquisition and logging on board the vehicle of navigational data and measurements taken by its sensors :
  altitude, pressure, temperature, heading, speed and hour
• Preparing, monitoring, archiving and examining data with VEMO+ and ADELIE software

And, as options:

• Rather than the sampling basket, it is possible to install the ROBIN (ROBot d'Inspection du Nautile), a small robot remote-controlled from the Nautile, used for surveying, inspecting, filming and taking photos of areas which are inaccessible for the submersible
• Standard or special tools can be developed and taken on board, upon request.

Technical specifications

Since the Nautile is quite lightweight for the performances it supplies, it can be deployed from a support ship of relatively light tonnage and has excellent maneouvrability.

• Working depth : 6,000 m
• Weight (for a dive to 6,000 m) : 19.50 t
• Dimensions:
  • length: 8.00 m
  • width: 2.70 m
  • height: 3.81 m
• Manned sphere:
  • crew: 3 people
  • inside diameter: 2.10 m
  • material: titanium alloy
  • portholes: 3 (120 mm in diameter)
• Power from lead batteries: capacity at 6,000 m:
  • 37 kWh in 230 V
  • 6.5 kWh in 28 V
• Pitch and trim control adjusted by mercury pump: ± 8°
• Main propulsion: one adjustable axial thruster
  • longitudinal displacement speed: 1.7 knots
  • radius of action at 1.5 knots: 7.5 km
• Auxiliary propulsion:
  • 2 vertical thrusters
  • 1 transversal thruster forward
  • 1 transversal thruster aft
• Autonomy (working on seafloor): 5 h
• Remote manipulation :
  • 1 manipulator arm with 4 degrees of liberty (+ claw open and close)
  • 1 manipulator arm with 6 degrees of liberty (+ claw open and close)
• Hydraulic units: 2
• Communications:
  • undersea telephone while diving
  • VHF transceiver at surface
• Equipment:
  • 1 altitude sounder
  • 1 sediment sounder
  • 1 panoramic sounder
  • 2 colour 3-CDD video cameras
  • 2 still cameras with 300 and 600 J flash
  • two 650 W iodine flood lights
  • five 400 W HMI flood lights
  • 1 data acquisition and navigation unit
  • 1 sampling basket
• Scientific equipment payload 200 kg
• Safety:
  • additional life support: 120 h
  • 9 emergency pyrotechnic devices
  • 1 emergency locating device

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Shipboard installation

The Nautile can be taken aboard two French research vessels: the Nadir and l'Atalante. Both of these ships have a 20 t stern A-frame which can safely deploy and retrieve the submersible.

Nautile's gear includes:

• The submersible itself,
• A dolly,
• 5 standard-compliant containers (6.60 m L x 2.45 m W x 2.6 m H)
  • mechanical maintenance workshop
  • electronics maintenance workshop
  • video display and processing container
  • beacon and photo container
  • container holding surface navigational systems.
• Additional ballast whose volume will depend on the assignment's duration (uses 1,000 kg per dive)
• An outside oxygen reserve and an oxygen compressor.

Nautile's operational crew includes at least 8 people:

• 2 pilots including 1 operational supervisor
• 2 electronics technicians/co-pilots
• 2 electronic navigation technicians
• 2 mechanical technicians/divers.

Partners

The Nautile is operated and maintained by GENAVIR; Ifremer carries out technical monitoring and developments.

The main industrial partners involved in developing the submersible are:

• The DCN (Naval shipyards division) in Toulon
• EMERSON & CUMMING for the synthetic foam
• AMETEK / STRAZA for the sonar
• HYTEC for the digital still camera
• BENTHOS for the flashes
• CEAC / FULMEN for the batteries
• PYROMECA for pyrotechnical jettisoning devices
• UGINE forthe sphere's construction
• THALES, iXSEA OCEANO for the POSIDONIA positioning system