ISIS: a swath imaging sonar for shelf edge survey

The present project was the result of the common ambition of the two principal contractors to build a sonar for shelf edge deployment. For IOSDL it was to serve scientific interests, which can extend over the full range of ocean environments, and for Ultra it was the desire to exploit the trend to take offshore operations into deeper waters and the opportunities offered by cable and pipeline surveys. Ultra also wished to extend the application of their ASSET technology, developed on a different program. IOSDL have responsibility for the towfish, the sidescan arrays, the profiler and the auxiliary instrumentation. Ultra are providing the sonar electronics, the data acquisition and telemetry, the data recording and the analysis and display, using their ASSET technology and the TESSA workstation for display, processing and control.