Vos Joins Greensea IQ

Greensea IQ appointed Jeff Vos as the Business Development Manager for Integrated Systems. Vos brings a wealth of experience and expertise in the marine industry, having worked in ocean robotics for the past five years, most recently at Oceantobics, Inc. Vos will be based out of Greensea IQ's San Diego office, where he will focus on driving sales and building strategic partnerships. His primary responsibility will be to promote and enhance the market presence of Greensea IQ's Bayonet autonomous underwater ground vehicles (AUGV), a cutting-edge solution that offers unmatched autonomy and versatility in near shore, underwater operations, making it an invaluable asset for marine applications in the surf zone.

Thompson Joins Valeport

Valeport welcomes Amy Thompson as Product Manager. Thompson is an experienced oceanographic engineer that brings more than a decade of expertise from customer relations roles to this newly created position at Valeport. Joining from a Support Manager role at OceanWise, Thompson will strengthen Valeport’s Innovation and Product Department working with respected hydrographic professional, Iain Slade, who leads this department.

Drawing on her operational oceanographic experience, Thompson’s new role sees her assisting in shaping the product strategy for all Valeport and Valeport Water products. Her responsibilities encompass generating innovative ideas and managing the product lifecycle from inception to customer delivery and beyond. Amy collaborates closely with the broader team to ensure Valeport’s product portfolio remains relevant and aligned with current and future customer needs.

RTsys gets Kit from Teledyne Marine

Specialist of Acoustics and Drones, RTsys announced continued collaboration with Teledyne Marine with further orders for RDI DVLs as demand continues to grow for its range of specialist AUVs comprising of the SEMA ASW training target, COMET-300, NemoSens AUV and µAUV for scientific, industrial and defense applications.

Kraken Receives SAS Order from HII

Kraken Robotics announced an initial order of its AquaPix Miniature Synthetic Aperture Sonar (MINSAS) System for HII’s new REMUS 620 Medium Class UUV. Synthetic Aperture Sonar is a tool for mine countermeasure (MCM) operations. This order is valued at $1 million and will be fulfilled in 2024. The end users of these new REMUS 620 systems with Kraken MINSAS are teams led by NOAA working to identify areas of deep water corals and other sensitive habitats for restoration activities following the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.

Floating LIDAR Facilitates KREDO Offshore Wind Farm

DNV is providing technical advisory and project management support for the deployment and monitoring of seven Floating Lidar System (FLS) devices for KREDO Offshore, a Korean renewable energy developer. The FLS takes wind measurements from a vertical light detection and ranging device and also collects a range of measurements including met ocean parameters. It has become one of the most common measurement technologies of choice for offshore wind projects due to its cost effective and time-saving benefits.

DNV’s work scope also includes reviewing the supplier track record and contracts, FLS design and analysing the data measured by the devices. DNV is carrying out regular data checks for the wind measurements, using these and technical data on the wind turbines to predict the wind farm’s net annual energy production. In addition, DNV is offering recommendations to minimize the operational risks for KREDO Offshore to ensure the highest possible quality of the measured dataset.

Oceaneering’s Ocean Perception

Oceaneering International, Inc., announced the successful field trial of Ocean Perception, a patented marine mammal mitigation software solution for the offshore wind and renewables industry. The field trial was conducted in August 2023 at the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary offshore the Northeastern United States to demonstrate Ocean Perception’s first-of-its-kind visualization of real-time mitigation operations, mammal detections, and locations. Ocean Perception is a unique solution that provides accurate mammal location data to improve operational efficiencies for construction operations – thereby reducing downtime attributed to false positives experienced by traditional marine mammal monitoring methods. Ocean Perception integrates equipment and sensor information to a vessel-based control center, streamlining operations and improving overall situational awareness. The trial integrated SMRU Consulting’s battery-powered Cab Guardian Buoy System with Ocean Perception as part of a complete package for offshore wind construction operations. The buoy system can detect mammals at a range of up to 10 km (4 mi) and report those detections in real-time, allowing Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) operators to approve the detections within Pamguard software, seamlessly delivering into Ocean Perception’s map visualization.

NemoSens SwordFish Collaboration

In a collaboration among NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS), AUV manufacturer RTsys and subsea imaging technology manufacturer Arctic Rays, the NemoSens SwordFish is designed to revolutionize ocean exploration and research by enhancing NOAA's efforts to study and understand the seabed.

NCCOS will use these vehicles to collect high-resolution digital images of the seabed as deep as 300 meters inside the United States Exclusive Economic Zone. These unique vehicles fill a technological gap and a growing need to provide sufficient images cost-effectively to characterize ecosystems and inform decisions about offshore energy development, sustainable fisheries and protecting special places in the ocean.

The micro underwater vehicle will be equipped with SwordFish, an imaging payload developed by Arctic Rays. A fully integrated camera + lighting solution, SwordFish enables turnkey imaging acquisition for seafloor survey. The imaging payload features geo-referenced digital capture of 4K UHD video and still images with high-output dual-mode lighting and an onboard CPU and SSD storage.

This payload is integrated into the NemoSens micro AUV, developed by RTsys. The modular vehicle utilizes sustainable energy sources, minimizing its environmental footprint and allowing for extended mission durations.

Reach X Launched

Reach Robotics launched the Reach X Advanced Intervention System, a step-change in underwater manipulator technology for portable Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs). The Reach X, a power-dense, compact manipulator, designed to revolutionize subsea operations by enabling portable ROVs to carry out tasks previously reserved for human divers. Five years of collaboration with US and Australian DoD operators has provided the insight Reach Robotics needed to address these shortfalls through the release of the Reach X.

Vaarst SubSLAM Deeper

Vaarst has developed a real-time data collection system capable of building live 3D reconstructions in deep waters down to 6000m/19,685 ft. feet. SubSLAM X2 technology is designed to deliver complete spatial reconstructions to advance understanding of challenging subsea environments using SubSLAM Deeper. Vaarst’s technology enables complete, accurate subsea data capture and intelligence for faster and easier decision making. SubSLAM X2 is the first real-time system to deliver dense point cloud data with perfect relative positioning and sub-mm precision underwater.

Exail and Kongsberg Discovery Collaborate

Exail and Kongsberg Discovery announced a successful collaboration in the field of Long Baseline (LBL) subsea positioning solutions. Since June 2023, Kongsberg cPAP LBL transceiver and Exail Ramses LBL transceiver have achieved full compatibility, marking a significant milestone in the LBL positioning industry. This advancement empowers customers with enhanced capabilities to optimize underwater operations and achieve unparalleled precision in navigation.

This new compatibility, which involves Exail's Ramses system directly controlling Kongsberg's cPAP transceiver, enables the seamless integration of both devices on the same subsea vehicle. This achievement unlocks advanced LBL capabilities, offering substantial benefits to customers who are already utilizing Kongsberg's HiPAP and cNODE transponders.

They can now incorporate Exail's Inertial Navigation System (INS) technology into their sparse-LBL or LBL operations, allowing any vehicle equipped with the Exail INS system to navigate within an array of cNODE transponders. This significantly enhances flexibility in offshore operations, with particular relevance to the oil and gas sector, where LBL positioning is widely employed.

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion

Makai Ocean Engineering (Makai) signed an agreement with Shell Technology - Marine Renewable Program to further develop and test potentially transformative proprietary technologies that advance the engineering and economic viability of an offshore Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) system.

Makai’s concepts for OTEC systems and heat exchanger, the Thin Foil Heat Exchanger (TFHX), hold the potential to reduce the capital costs and operating costs of an offshore OTEC system. A key part of this study is to work with Shell to accelerate the timeframe for reaching true economic viability of OTEC systems.

Picotech new Multibeam Echosounders Range

Picotech launched the PicoMB13X Range of Multibeam Echosounders with low SWaP-C for hydrographic survey onboard man-portable USVs and small survey vessels delivering superior quality survey data from ultra-compact units. The range comprises the PicoMB131, PicoMB132 and PicoMB133. Their small size, low weight and power consumption are designed to allow rapid mobilization, simple launch and recovery and long endurance.

PicoMB132 and PicoMB133 bot come with an Inertial Navigation System fully integrated within their deck units, designed to speed and simplify mobilization and reduce costs. All systems are supported by industry standard acquisition and processing software, BeamworX, EIVA NaviSuite, Xylem HYPACK, Teledyne PDS and QPS QINSy.

World’s First Hydrogen-Hybrid RV

Naval architecture and marine engineering firm Glosten and Siemens Energy have selected Ballard Power Systems and Chart Industries as primary equipment vendors for their design of what is slated to be the first hydrogen-hybrid research vessel in the world. The vessel, nominally known as the CCRV, is currently in the design phase and will be owned and operated by UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography (Scripps). Ballard Power Systems will provide the fuel cells which will help power the vessel, and Chart Industries will provide the cryogenic tank and fuel gas system where the liquid hydrogen fuel will be bunkered and conditioned for the fuel cells—both essential components of a hydrogen-fuel-cell propulsion system.

Kongsberg featured on new German RV

Kongsberg said it will provide scientific sensors and scientific handling equipment for Germany’s new ocean research vessel, the 135-metre Meteor IV. The new 10,000GT vessel will be able to house 35 scientists plus 36 crew. Meteor IV will be built by MeyerFassmer Spezialschiffbau (MFSB) for the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The vessel, due for delivery in 2026, replaces existing research vessels Meteor and Poseidon.

Kongsberg Discovery will supply Meteor IV with the EM 124 and EM 712 multibeam echo sounders, used for seabed mapping at various depths. Kongsberg Discovery will also provide the Seapath 380 with Motion Gyro Compass (MGC) R3, whose sensors use GNSS signals and inertial measurements. These combine with the EM series of echo sounders to create an exact picture of the seabed.

To monitor ecosystems and marine life, Meteor IV will use Kongsberg Discovery’s EK80, a high-precision scientific echo sounder with acoustic doppler current profiler capability, which may be used to measure the velocity of fish in a water column. The EK80 measures speed and direction of currents in a water column, which helps researchers understand how organisms, nutrients, and other biological and chemical constituents are transported through the ocean.

Kongsberg Maritime will supply a complete integrated scientific handling system for Meteor IV, enabling safe and efficient operations with cables and ropes up to 12,000m in length.

The scientific winch system comprises two direct pull winches, two conventional twin drum traction winch systems and a third traction winch system, which includes Kongsberg Maritime’s cable traction control unit (CTCU) for superior performance with synthetic fiber rope.

The delivery also includes overboard handling units; a stern A-frame, two handling beams, and a corer handling system, as well as cranes.