COMMENTS 5


Lithium Polymer batteries are key to new search for lost MH370 airliner


Aidan Turnbull Editor T


he Malaysian government has awarded a "no-find, no-fee" contract to a private US-based tech company to resume the search for Malaysian Airlines flight 370. Ocean Infinity will only receive payment if it's successful in


finding the remains of the plane, which went missing in March 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people onboard.


The 90-day search by the ship Seabed Constructor is taking place over an area of 25,000 square kilometres (just under 10,000 square miles) off Australia's west coast, to the northeast of the original search area. The search will be undertaken by a fleet of eight autonomous


underwater Kongsberg Maritime's HUGIN drones "packed with sensors," whose data from the seabed is then analyzed on board the surface vessel, says Oliver Plunkett, Ocean Infinity’s CEO. The drones - Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) - do not need to be towed by surface ships, as was the case with previous searches, which, according to Ocean Infinity, makes their search capabilities more effective. "Most AUVs in use today are powered by rechargeable


batteries - lithium ion, lithium polymer, nickel metal hydride etc.- and are fitted with a Battery Management System. Some vehicles use primary batteries which provide perhaps twice the endurance - at a substantial extra cost per mission. Each of the 8 HUGIN 6000s operated by Ocean Infinity are


equipped with 6 batteries, providing a total of 48 kWh of energy. The batteries are Lithium Polymer, rechargeable and swappable between dives. They are arranged in 2 stacks of 3 batteries side by side in the main body section of the vehicle. Kongsberg Maritime buys in the cells, but then builds them into the battery


housings along with a battery management system. The cells are made into blocks, and each battery has 30+ blocks separated by a hard firewall. The batteries are oil-filled, open to ambient pressure, and are rated to 6,000 m depths. Between missions, operators can either charge them in situ, or swap them for a freshly charged set. Charging takes between 5-8 hours per stack of 3 depending on the power supply and configuration. Australia led the initial search, after analysis showed that the


bulk of the plane was most likely to rest on the seabed off the coast of West Australia. Plunkett said that discounting the already searched areas


and employing Ocean Infinity's AUV technology gave him confidence the company would discover the wreckage of the plane where others have failed as the drones can cover 1,200 sq km a day, enabling the team to search beyond the initial search area..


Topographic rendering of a portion of the Southern Ocean seabed being searched.


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