From January 18th to 20th, the Underwater Systems and Technology Laboratory from FEUP, OceanScan MST, and the Portuguese Navy (Mine Warfare Diving Unit nº3 and the Hydrographic Institute) performed several joint tests to evaluate the performance of LAUV vehicles on sidescan sonar and magnetometer surveys.

On the 18th and 20th, the operations took place in Tagus river (Mar da Palha) using a Mindelo class vessel and three LAUV vehicles equipped with sidescan sonar. It was possible to validate the coordinated use of three vehicles to survey an area almost the size of 30 soccer fields in little more than an hour.

On the 19^th, operations took place on board of NRP Centauro patrol boat from the Portuguese Navy, off the coast of Sesimbra. The aim of this test was to validate the integration of a magnetometer in a LAUV and compare its efficiency with towed magnetometers. To do that, a metal barrel was sunk at known place and multiple surveys were undertook both by a RHIB with towed magnetometer and the LAUV vehicle (with onboard magnetometer).