Maslin, Elaine
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Christmas @ Sea: “Seas and Greetings” from NOC
Have you ever wondered what happens on ships when they’re at sea for Christmas? Crews onboard the National Oceanography Centre’s (NOC’s) research vessels, based in Southampton, have given a glimpse into the holiday season out on the ocean waves, including Christmas carols and – if one captain has his way – watching Frozen.Both research ships that the center operates, the Royal Research Ship (RRS) James Cook and RRS Discovery…
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Subsea Robotics: Aquanauts, Hydronauts, Roll Out
Houston-based Nauticus Robotics’ first production Aquanauts and Hydronauts will head into the wild and closer to full commercialization this year, with testing planned in Norway and in the Gulf of Mexico. Founder and CEO Nicolaus Radford discusses the past few busy years for the tech start-up.It’s been a relatively fast journey for Nauticus. Set up in 2014 (as Houston Mechatronics Inc), the company has been a bit of an outsider in the offshore industry…
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Subsea Infrastructure Power Looks at Renewables
Using renewable energy to power critical subsea infrastructure needs power management. It’s a capability Verlume will soon be proving off the Orkney Islands – and Hawaii.Integrating offshore renewables into offshore operations has become a major goal for oil and gas companies. A remote power supply could improve project economics for long step-outs, where they replace long power cables. Powering facilities…
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Tech File: A Robotic Reach in Offshore Wind
With a background in subsea and offshore, coming up with new ideas is the norm’ for UK-based engineering consultancy STL (Submarine Technology Limited), writes Elaine Maslin.The last few years have been no different. The company has been focusing on ship-based robotics, including robotic arms. These aren’t just any robotic arms – they’re motion compensated systems for deploying/recovering people and robots to and from fixed or moving objects.
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MATS, A New Uncrewed Platform for Offshore Wind
Survey, positioning and data management firm UTEC, part of the Acteon Group, is targeting the offshore wind survey and inspection market with a new uncrewed surface vessel (USV).Torsten Marten, lead surveyor, UTEC, outlined the new design at the Marine Autonomous Technology Showcase (MATS), at the National Oceanography Center (NOC) in Southampton, UK, early November.It’s a 12m-long, “DP equivalent” catamaran design…
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New Tech Frontiers for Ocean Gliders
Expanding the amount of work that gliders can do was a key topic at this year’s Marine Autonomous Technology Showcase.Building useful datasets that allow a better understanding ocean of ocean variables has long been a challenge. It’s not that long ago that ocean temperature data was limited to surface temperature and the same goes for many other parameters.But an increasing number of players, across science…
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A Robotic Reach in Offshore Wind
With a background in subsea and offshore, coming up with new ideas is the norm for UK-based engineering consultancy STL (Submarine Technology Limited), writes Elaine Maslin.The last few years have been no different. The company has been focusing on ship-based robotics, including robotic arms. These aren’t just any robotic arms – they’re motion-compensated systems for deploying/recovering people and…
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Celtic Sea Floating Wind in Focus
The Celtic Sea is well positioned to maximize its position as an early hub for floating offshore wind. Still, it’s’ going to be a huge industrial challenge not unlike the oil industry faced when developing the Brents in the 1980s, today’s Floating Offshore Wind conference in Aberdeen heard.The region currently has 4-5 100MW scale projects in progress, including the TwinHub project, which received the…
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FOW Players Target 132kV Dynamic Cables
UK industry players are eying the development of 132kV dynamic array cables to meet the demands of ever larger turbines, but there are calls for standards to be agreed before they invest.The need for 132kV cables is being driven by the growth is turbine capacity to 15MW and beyond, with 20MW turbines even being discussed. These sizes out a strain on use of even the latest 66kV capacity cables, as it…
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MTR100: For USVs and AUVs, is it a Hydrogen Future?
Hydrogen has been making big headlines in the energy world. It’s one of the potential routes to deliver high density energy to transport and heavy industry – but also to marine applications, as well as a way to move and store renewable energy. Various uncrewed surface vessel (USV) developers, autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) builders and even subsea power delivery system providers are taking a serious look – and even trialing – hydrogen as an option.SEA-KITThe Maxlimer hydrogen configuration.
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USVs Eye Offshore Wind Opportunities
Use of USVs in offshore wind has started to become a norm; in pre-survey and post-construction, with O&M on its way. How much more could be done?The use of USVs in the offshore industry has come a long way since they first started making an appearance in the 2010s. After some tentative steps, companies like XOCEAN have come in and blazed a trail, not least in offshore wind.This has largely been for standard multibeam and sub-bottom profile surveys.
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Marine Minerals – A New Opportunity for Subsea Oil and Gas Technology
2023 could be a significant year for subsea mining, both in Norway and internationally. Norway’s environmental impact assessment for marine mining is ongoing, and the opening of the first Norwegian area for marine mining licenses is due to be approved while the International Seabed Authority (ISA), which has the authority over licenses in international waters, is due to approve legislation for marine…
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AUV Extravaganza: Tech Advances in Autonomous Underwater Vehicles
Modularity, flexibility and intelligence are the bywords of some of the latest generations of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) hitting the market, but not for all. Some are taking a more industrial mass production approach and/or going for a more fixed payload offering, to bring slimmer, lighter but still highly capable vehicles to the market. Elaine Maslin spoke to some of the manufacturers with their latest vehicles on show at this year’s Oceanology in London.The range of colors – pink…
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Carbon Capture & Storage: A New Lease of Life for Submarine Pipelines?
Since 2019, hydrogen and carbon capture and storage (CCS) have risen up the political agenda, globally, offering a route to decarbonization, as well as (more recently), increased energy security. Many are eying use of existing pipeline to make both happen. Elaine Maslin takes a look.Hydrogen production and CCS offers a more or less “green” decarbonization options for oil and gas companies, alongside carbon capture and storage (CCS)…
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Edward Heerema – Dutch Courage with Single-minded Focus
Edward Heerema is founder and president of Allseas, which brought the world’s largest construction vessel, Pioneering Spirit, to the market. The company, which also brought innovation to the pipelay sector, has added its latest trick to Pioneering Spirit – its jacket lift system. But Allseas is also targeting deepsea mining and has its sights on the offshore wind market. Elaine Maslin caught up with…
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Oceanology ’22 Day 3: New Companies, New Ideas
The final day at Oceanology International in London was quieter, but the conversations still continued, including those with a new cohort of companies looking to offer new ways of doing business, as MTR's Elaine Maslin found. The final day of this year’s Oceanology International conference, being held at London’s Excel Centre, was a quieter affair than the past two days, but those who remained were…
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Oceanology ’22 Day 2: New Demands Drive Ocean Innovation
Day two at Oceanology International in London had a full crowd and plenty of demonstrations of collaboration, as the industry looks to new horizons, as MTR’s Elaine Maslin found on the show floor. Making new industries fly can demand new ways of working while new technologies can open up whole new classes of vehicle. Demonstrations of both were clearly visible at Oceanology International at London’s Excel Centre.The challenges are big…
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Oceanology '22 Day 1: Expect More Data and Disruption in the Ocean Space
Day one at Oceanology International in London was bustling with activity, as MTR's Elaine Maslin found, reporting from the show floor.Data and disruption are coming up as key themes at this year’s Oceanology International conference, in what’s the first time the event has run in three years. The event, being held at London’s Excel Centre, has attracted an international crowd, including a cohort of new entrants…
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Autonomy: Sun, Sail & Subsea – Not a Holiday, but a Hybrid UxV Platform
Ten years ago, Ocean Aero’s unique hybrid sailboat-submarine was a novel idea being developed in a San Diego garage. Today, the company has a growing fleet of vehicles on the water and a $14 million funding injection to take it the next level. Elaine Maslin reports.Earlier this year, a great illustration of the ongoing adoption of marine autonomous systems was made through the International Maritime Exercise (IMX) 2022…
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Putting Power on the Seafloor is a Fuel Cell Future
Two outfits, one in Germany and one in the US, are chasing a goal of supplying long-term subsea power in remote locations, via fuel cells, to users including oceanographic observatories to underwater vehicles. Elaine Maslin takes a look.Long term operation of subsea equipment or instruments in remote locations poses something of a challenge. While battery technology has improved vastly, it’s still not sufficient for long term deployments.For a decade or so…
February 2025
