The Underwater Technology Group at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh have been actively engaged in the design, construction and operation of unmanned, cable controlled Submersibles since 1970. The name given to the project is A.N.G.U.S., which stands for A Navigable General-purpose Underwater Surveyor. The objective of the group is to produce a fully automated Submersible system capable of performing a wide variety of search, survey and recovery tasks, under computer control, within the depth limitations of the Continental Shelf. To this end, two Submersibles, ANGUS 001 and ANGUS 002, have been built and operated at sea, with a third vehicle, ANGUS 003, at present nearing completion. From the outset of the project it was recognized that realistic research data can only be obtained by carrying out experiments under realistic environmental conditions and this necessitates operating from ships at sea. As it is financially impracticable for the University to maintain a research vessel, the project requires to rely, for trials and experimental purposes, upon organisations that possess suitable ships. Due to the high cost of ship time, these organisations can only be expected to offer the use of their vessel?s in return, for the provision of a worthwhile service from the University. It is for this reason that the ANGUS Submersibles are designed as a WORKING SYSTEM with the dual purpose of carrying out research on unmanned Submersibles while, at the same time providing a low cost service to other Universities, Government establishments and industrial companies to enable them to carry out their own selected projects in the field of Underwater Technology. An important facet of the work is the introduction of undergraduate and postgraduate .students to Underwater Technology. Involvement in the ANGUS project stresses the importance of team effort and a systems approach to engineering problems. While the long term aim of the project is to study "in depth", all the problems associated with unmanned, remotely controlled Submersibles for fundamental Scientific and Engineering knowledge, practical use has already been made of the experience gained to date by a commercial company designing cable controlled Submersibles for the North Sea oil market.
It is almost a decade since the North Sea rocketed from obscurity into international prominence. The Touch Paper was lit by Phillips in 1969 and the main stage ignited in 1973 with the Middle East oil crisis. Amid the ensuing profusion of exploration rigs, production platforms and underwater pipelines, the problem arose of how to inspect and maintain the wide variety of installations on the sea bed. The solution which presented itself in the early seventies was the manned, free swimming Submersible. The alternative solution to the problem of working at depth, the unmanned, cable controlled Submersible was not considered, primarily because there were no viable commercial systems available at that time.
