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State-of-the-Art Facilities for Marine Science

One of the most crucial stages of the development of marine autonomous vehicles is testing their capabilities and quality. Before they can go out into the ocean and serve their purpose, testing closer to home needs to be rigorous and thorough.

NOC is home to state-of-the-art testing facilities including pressure vessels and environmental chambers. Information on all facilities can be seen below.

Systems Reliability Lab

State-of-the-art testing facilities including pressure vessels and environmental chambers are available to hire at the NOC. These facilities enable the testing of all types of marine autonomous vehicles.

  • Freshwater and saltwater ballasting tanks
  • Environmental test chamber with shaker
  • Pressure testing facility, including two hyperbaric pressure testing facilities and an immersion test tank
  • Salt spray test chamber
  • Co-ordinate Measuring Machine room
  • Battery testing facility
  • Calibration laboratory
  • Communication aerial mast
  • Waterfront launching capability

Pressure Testing Facility

Includes two hyperbaric pressure-testing facilities and an immersion test tank.

Pressure test tank PV1:

  • 952.5mm diameter × 1,206.6mm deep
  • PC controlled with hard copy on line reports available
  • Working pressure up to 680bar
  • The main lid has three entry/exit ports for monitoring equipment during the tests

Pressure test tank PV2:

  • 304.8mm diameter × 889mm deep
  • Manual system
  • Working pressure up to 680bar
  • The lid has a single entry/exit port

Immersion Tank

We have a 5m × 4m × 4m water depth test tank. A crane allows large items of equipment to be easily handled into and out of the tank. Windows in the sides of the tank allow for inspection of submerged items. Facilities exist for acoustic measurements, e.g., circle diagram plotting for transducers.

Other Facilities

Other specialist testing and workshop facilities on the University of Southampton’s Highfield and Bolderwood campuses are available to access, subject to availability. These facilities include:

  • Rapid prototyping
  • Towing tank
  • Wind tunnels

NOC's Ocean Vehicles

Oceanographers have driven the widespread use and acceptance of robotic and autonomous systems in the marine environment. These platforms transform our monitoring capability through autonomous, adaptive and persistent observations from the sea surface to the deepest depths and furthest reaches of the oceans.