Marlin AUV

Marlin is a battery-powered autonomous underwater vehicle for inspecting pipelines, seabed debris and offshore structures. The vehicle is approximately 3.05 metres long, is rated to 304.8 metres and can sprint at four knots. Its onboard autonomy and sonar payloads generate high-resolution, georeferenced three-dimensional models without a tether or a diver in the inspection area.

The Marlin MK2 configuration has a payload capacity of about 113.4 kilograms and an endurance range of 18–24 hours. An open, modular architecture supports multibeam, side-scan, sub-bottom and synthetic-aperture sonar as well as video, still-camera and laser-profiler payloads. Lockheed Martin has used Marlin for commercial infrastructure inspections in the Gulf of Mexico and demonstrated cross-domain payload integration by launching a Vector Hawk aircraft from an MK2 vehicle.