CoPilot Retrofitted onto Falcon ROV

SeeByte, a creator of smart software for unmanned maritime systems, announced that Heriot-Watt University has integrated CoPilot with its Seaeye Falcon 1256, an observation-class ROV.

With assistance from Heriot-Watt University’s Ocean Systems Laboratory personnel, the SeeByte team integrated and tuned the system to operate with a Teledyne RDI Workhorse Navigator 600 KHz DVL. The work was conducted over a two day period including testing in Heriot-Watt University’s wave tank. This configuration can be used with other Seaeye Falcon systems.

Professor Yvan Petillot, Head of Research at the Sensors, Signals, and Systems Institute, commented, “SeeByte’s CoPilot provides us a real-time input to their navigation and waypoint engine. This means we can deploy electric manipulators and develop coupled control algorithms as well as adaptive control routines. This is a fantastic resource for our PhD students. It will also add value to our colleagues across the road on the life sciences school, helping them conduct repetitive geo-located surveys.”

CoPilot is an advanced, easy-to-use, plug-and play software that makes piloting any ROV a much simpler task. CoPilot permits pilot controlled auto-transit and stop-and-hover, while providing automated sonar tracking and movement relative to a target. CoPilot is easily retrofitted to any ROV system, but is also available from the factory with VideoRay, Seatronics and SMD.