HarborSuite™

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the world’s seaports have increasingly been viewed as potential targets for future terrorist attacks.

The expeditious flow of commerce through these ports is so essential that a disruptive event that temporarily closed a port would be economically intolerable. It is imperative that effective security systems be rapidly deployed to monitor both the surface and underwater components of these critical economic assets.

The first key step in meeting this goal has been accomplished with the development of preliminary port surface surveillance systems in the US and abroad. While these systems are effectively addressing the surface component of port security, this is not true for the underwater component.

Integrated Underwater Port Surveillance

Triton Imaging has brought to bear its significant experience and technical assets in underwater imaging, mapping, visualization, and system engineering to develop a solution to the current lack of underwater port surveillance capability; this solution is called HarborSuite. HarborSuite is an integrated system that provides solutions for the three most important problems in underwater port security: Seabed Monitoring, Vessel Delousing, and Underwater Situational Awareness.

Seabed Acoustic Imaging and Monitoring

Monitoring and rapid detection of potentially threatening objects placed on the seabed within the port. Triton’s proven acoustic image-based change detection technology and associated COTS products are used to continually monitor the seabed within a port for changes from a baseline survey. Beginning with detailed, comprehensive, multi-sensor Baseline Surveys of the seafloor within the port, and followed with regularly scheduled Monitoring Re-Surveys, the Triton system will detect and classify changes on the seabed.

HarborSuite automatically communicates the location of potentially threatening objects to supporting units in real-time for follow-up investigation by divers or unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs).

Vessel Delousing

Underwater inspection of vessel hulls to detect the presence of potentially threatening attachments.The Vessel Delousing component of HarborSuite employs state-of-the-art 3D acoustic imaging technology, uniquely configured multibeam echo sounders, underwater video cameras, and associated Triton COTS and developmental software to accomplish the detection of unusual objects attached to the hulls of vessels before they enter a harbor.

An example of the operator display at the delousing station is shown on the left above. Shown is a 3D acoustic image of the hull of the vessel undergoing inspection being compared with a 3D wire-frame model of the hull that is stored in the HarborSuite database. An insert window is also concurrently displaying a video image of an object in question that the operators have been alerted to as a potential threat.

A Mobile Scanning Unit is designed to provide detailed analysis of vessels on which an anomaly has been identified, of high-risk vessels, or of vessel areas that are difficult to image with a fixed array. Two mobile survey platforms are used, as appropriate:

• A rapid transit model based around the International Submarine Engineering Ltd (ISE) Dorado semi-submersible minehunting vehicle. (shown on right above.)
• A stationary or slow transit model based around a small AUV that can be hand-deployed

Real-time Underwater Situation Awareness

Comprehensive, real-time monitoring, display and consequence-based risk assessment of a port’s underwater assets.

The USAW provides an intelligent ability to compute “risk-values” on the assets and components of the port. For example, at the Delousing Station, the USAW performs the comparison analysis of a model hull with the newly scanned imagery. Potential risk features are highlighted to the user in real time for subsequent action.

In its initial configuration, the USAW integrates and displays information from the HarborSuite Monitoring and Delousing systems described above. The envisioned growth path is for USAW to incorporate real-time data from swimmer detection sonars systems and integrate with surface port security systems. But even before this growth path is followed, HarborSuite will provide unique and important monitoring of and protection from one of the major risks in Homeland Security still inadequately addressed: the underwater threat.

 

 

 

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