Role & capabilities
- Hydrographic survey
- Environmental sensing
- Autonomous-docking research
- Primary domain
- Underwater
- System type
- Autonomous underwater vehicle
- Developer / manufacturer
- International Submarine Engineering
- Origin / production countries
- Canada
- Other names
- No additional names recorded
- Variants / configurations
- Not distinguished in reviewed sources
- Operators / programme customers
- Ifremer — historical delivered vehicles; Japan Coast Guard — historical customer
Evidence & current status
Public reference specifications do not establish every customer's delivered configuration.
Explorer is International Submarine Engineering's modular survey AUV. Its interchangeable body sections allow batteries and instruments to be tailored to a customer, so there is no single length or endurance that represents every Explorer. The 2024 data sheet offers sonar, optical and environmental instruments for hydrography, scientific work and defence-related applications.
ISE's historical customer material records vehicles used by organisations including Ifremer and Japan's Coast Guard. Those named relationships are useful evidence of real use, but the document's date matters: it does not establish the present readiness of every historical vehicle. A separate manufacturer report describes autonomous underwater docking development supported by Canada's IDEaS programme, using Explorer as the test platform.
The specification ranges below remain conditional on the battery banks, payloads and hull options selected. Maximum depth, longest duration and largest payload should not be combined into an assumed single vehicle. Docking trials likewise do not make every Explorer a resident subsea system. This entry adds the established survey family while keeping its delivered civil configurations and defence development activities visible as different parts of the programme history.
Sourced specifications
Figures apply to the named configuration. Maximum values are not guaranteed operating performance.
| Specification | Reported value | Context & source |
|---|---|---|
| Configuration | Not established in the reviewed public sources. | Public evidence gap. No estimate or neighbouring variant value has been substituted. Source ↗ |
| Hull / propulsion | Lithium-ion energy; 18–48 kWh published configurations | Supplier baseline; installed equipment and operating conditions affect performance. Source ↗ |
| Dimensions | 4.5–7.5 m long; 0.74 m diameter | Supplier baseline; installed equipment and operating conditions affect performance. Source ↗ |
| Displacement / mass | 620–1,700 kg | Supplier baseline; installed equipment and operating conditions affect performance. Source ↗ |
| Payload | Not established in the reviewed public sources. | Public evidence gap. No estimate or neighbouring variant value has been substituted. Source ↗ |
| Endurance | 24–115 hours | Dependent on battery banks and active survey payloads. Source ↗ |
| Range | 160–600 km between charges | Dependent on battery banks and active survey payloads. Source ↗ |
| Speed | Survey speed 0.75–2.5 m/s | Supplier baseline; installed equipment and operating conditions affect performance. Source ↗ |
| Operating depth | 3,000 m or 6,000 m listed variants | Supplier baseline; installed equipment and operating conditions affect performance. Source ↗ |
| Sensors | Configurable acoustic, optical and environmental survey instruments | Supplier baseline; installed equipment and operating conditions affect performance. Source ↗ |
| Communications / control | Not established in the reviewed public sources. | Public evidence gap. No estimate or neighbouring variant value has been substituted. Source ↗ |
| Launch / deployment | Not established in the reviewed public sources. | Public evidence gap. No estimate or neighbouring variant value has been substituted. Source ↗ |
Publication history
- — Added in the September 2026 global coverage review, with sources, configuration limits and explicit data gaps.
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Follow the evidence
Source types identify who makes the claim. Programme milestones and supplier statements should be read in context.