Performance qualification of instrumentation, telemetry & data acquisition system for underwater mining machine with manganese nodule collection and crushing system

An underwater mining system has been developed for mining polymetallic modules and qualified in shallow water at 512m depth. The mining system has a remotely operable underwater mining machine which collects seabed nodules, crushes and pumps the same through a flexible riser to the mother ship. The machine is equipped with Acoustic Positioning system, Altimeter, Doppler Velocity Log (DVL), Proximity sensors, Linear Variable Differential Transformer (LVDT), Pressure, Temperature, Motion Reference Unit (MRU), Underwater Camera and lamps for various measurement and operation of underwater mining machine. The machine was tested at Angira Bank off Malvan coast during Oct 2010. This paper presents the details of performance of various underwater sensors, Telemetry & Data Acquisition system at 512m depth. Based on the results from the tests, the next phase of 6000m operations is being attempted.