Originally Posted by Peter-1959
The AUV in use seems to be capable of carrying at least another custom-device besides the side-scan sonar. Green/Blue laser could add just that additional piece of information, if detected, which could be overlooked with a side-scan sonar. Range is less, half maybe, but to increase the chance of finding, is what it's all about. Not to choose between the 2, but to add laser as another opportunity.
REMUS-6000 does seem to have a place for a camera; I expect one is fitted for this search. However, I am not aware of any laser scanners integrated with REMUS or other AUVs. It just takes time, $$ and a needy customer to interface a new instrument to any vehicle, AUV or ROV.
In any case, I don't think that both a laser imager and side-scan can be used effectively at the same time. Side scan works best when the vehicle is flown at an altitude of 10% of range (a lot of the information is revealed by the shadows), so for 300-500m side scan range the altitude should be 30-50m. For the laser scanner, you would want to fly at an altitude more nearly equal to range so 100-200m if that is the imaging range of the scanner.