MTR100: Blue Robotics Inc
Blue Robotics is a young and innovative company in the marine robotics industry. Since launching its T100 Thruster through a Kickstarter campaign in 2014, the company has expanded to offer nearly 100 products designed to make marine robotics more accessible, including its recently released BlueROV2, one of the most affordable and capable ROVs available. The BlueROV2 combines many other Blue Robotics products into a single ROV that is touted as cost efficient given its capabilities and flexibility. The BlueROV2 has already seen extensive interest and sold more than 50 units in the first week since release.
The Blue Robotics technology portfolio is focused on innovative thruster designs and other components as well as open-source software and hardware. These technologies provide high quality at a revolutionarily low cost. The company’s patent-pending thruster design uses a unique brushless motor design that is highly compact and inherently pressure tolerant.
In 2016 Blue Robotics released a number of sensors and electronics solutions including a pressure sensor rated to 300m depth, a high-accuracy temp sensor, and several tether interface boards. These products are all open-source hardware, following the open-source revolution within the aerial drone market that has spurred innovation and rapid growth. Similarly, the new ArduSub subsea vehicle control software is designed around the open-source DroneCode autopilot hardware and the ArduPilot codebase, bringing in hundreds of contributors, years of development, and providing features similar to the most advanced ROVs.
Email: info@bluerobotics.com
www.bluerobotics.com/
(As published in the July/August 2016 MTR100 edition of Marine Technology Reporter)