The ASEMAR (Auv de SEcurité MARitime) autonomous underwater vehicle is a project for France's DGE (director of armaments procurement) developed by Thales, partner ECA Robotics, and research laboratories at ENSIETA, Ecole Navale, AMURE, and ISEN. The project began in 2008 with the vehicle's first sea trials occurring off Toulon early in 2010.
The AUV is designed for maritime security and mine counter-measures. The vehicle's primary payload is Thale's TSM 2054 SAS (Synthetic Aperature Sonar) with automatic target recognition. While underwater, ASEMAR communicates via an acoustic modem and navigates with an intertial system and doppler sonar. A mono-directional, high data rate acoustic modem transmits sonar images of interest autonomatically identified by the vehicle to operators. On the surface, the AUV communicates with VHF, WIFI, and navigates with GPS.
Thales ASEMAR display at EURONAVAL 2012.