The University of Gothenburg has signed a contract to acquire a new autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), based on the HUGIN platform rated to 3,000 metres depth, following the loss of its predecessor “Ran” beneath an Antarctic glacier in 2024. Generous support from the donor organisation Voice of the Ocean and remaining insurance funds now make it possible for the university’s ocean-glaciology team to resume full-scale expeditions into inaccessible under-ice regions.
Why this matters for glacier-ocean science
Under the leadership of professor Anna Wåhlin, the team previously became the first to enter underneath the grounding line of the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica — obtaining near-field imagery and measurements of the ice-ocean interface that cannot be derived solely from satellites or surface vessels.
With the new vehicle (“Ran II”) the university gains a durable platform capable of penetrating deeper and under thicker sea-ice, thereby extending the reach of its investigations into basal melting, sub-glacial circulation and seabed topography.
Technical and operational advantages
The HUGIN family is well-documented as a commercial AUV series, offering “very stable and low noise hydrodynamic platform … operating depths of 3,000, 4,500 and 6,000 metres” according to Kongsberg Discovery. Equipped with advanced aided inertial navigation, multibeam echo-sounders, synthetic aperture sonar and environmental sensors, the system is well suited for under-ice and deep-sea missions. The university’s adoption of this system means significantly improved data quality, extended mission durations and higher autonomy in challenging environments.
How the suite will be deployed
Once delivery is complete, the University will integrate the AUV into a polar-deployment workflow. Technical teams will train in launch and recovery from ice-capable support vessels, conduct sensor calibration in harsh conditions, and plan under-ice missions with full autonomy and emergency decision-support features.
The data streams (bathymetry, currents, water properties, ice-base morphology) will be processed and then ingested into GIS-based hydrographic systems such as ArcGIS Maritime for Hydrographic Intelligence, facilitating integration with ice-sheet, oceanographic and climate models.
Benefits and drawbacks of GIS tool integration
Benefits:
Using ArcGIS Maritime allows the university to handle IHO S-100 compliant hydrographic data, automate chart- and map-production workflows, and build a full marine spatial data infrastructure (MSDI) combining seabed, sea-ice and oceanographic layers. Such integration enhances interdisciplinary research, enables broad sharing of datasets and supports decision-making for environment, navigation and climate studies.
Drawbacks / challenges:
However, processing high-resolution AUV-derived sonar, bathymetric and sub-bottom profiler data into GIS requires substantial computational resources and specialised workflow pipelines. Data validation, quality assurance and conversion to S-100 formats demand skilled personnel and may introduce delays.
Moreover, the dual-standard (S-57 plus S-100) phase means hydrographic offices and research institutions must maintain legacy workflows even while adopting new ones. Finally, operational risks — from under-ice navigation, strong currents, vehicle recovery difficulties and extreme ambient conditions — impose constraints on mission planning and may limit deployment windows.
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