Sonardyne positions robotic fleet for landmark Greenland study
An initiative known as the GIANT project, led by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), aims to determine how a warming ocean is accelerating the melt of Greenland’s tidewater glaciers, and what that means for global climate systems. This major climate science expedition is set to launch in the coming months, deploying a coordinated fleet of marine robots closer to Greenland’s glaciers than ever before, with underwater positioning support provided by Sonardyne.
The UK’s polar research vessel RRS Sir David Attenborough will deploy a networked system of autonomous aerial, surface and subsea vehicles into one of the planet’s most challenging environments, gathering data at a scale and precision not previously achieved in this setting. Sonardyne’s Ranger 2 Ultra-Short BaseLine (USBL) positioning system onboard the RRS Sir David Attenborough and a Mini-Ranger 2 USBL system on the daughter craft Erebus will be used to track and control formation operation of the mission’s underwater vehicles as they map the glacier’s underwater face.
The underwater vehicles being used include the UK National Oceanography Centre’s AutoSub Long Range (ALR, AKA Boaty McBoatface), a Teledyne Gavia and ecoSUB Robotics autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). The GIANT project involves 15 collaborating institutions, five technology partners and is backed by the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) as part of the Forecasting Tipping Points programme.
Turning multiple vehicles into a connected observing system
Dr Pierre Dutrieux is an oceanographer at BAS and is leading the ocean robotics research on RRS Sir David Attenborough: “This is an exciting and ambitious mission using fleets of autonomous vehicles to help us gather data in otherwise extremely hard to access environments. The data they collect will help to transform how we forecast ice loss in Greenland’s fjords and improve early warning systems for tipping points that could reshape our planet’s climate,” he says.
Michelle Barnett, business development manager ocean science at Sonardyne, comments: “Our acoustic and inertial systems provide the positioning layer that helps underwater robots know where they are, stay coordinated and return reliable scientific data. In simple terms, GIANT is not just about sending robots closer to the ice, which is ambitious in itself. It is about turning multiple vehicles into a connected observing system capable of gathering measurements scientists have never captured before.”
“By helping those robots operate safely and accurately in one of the harshest environments on Earth, Sonardyne is enabling research that could improve climate models and deepen understanding of a critical global challenge,” he continues.
About the GIANT mission
GIANT stands for ‘Greenland Ice sheet to AtlaNtic Tipping points from ice loss’. The GIANT mission is running from July into August 2026 at tidewater glaciers near Kangerlussuaq Fjord with a goal to map, measure and monitor everything from ocean water temperature to glacier movement using autonomous vehicles.
Alongside the underwater vehicles, there will be embedded robotic sensors tracking melting below the surface, a DriX uncrewed surface vessel at the surface and aerial drones surveying the ice from above. The information they gather will be used to answer a critical question: how fast can Greenland’s glaciers melt – and what does that mean for our climate?
