ACUA, Bedrock to Deploy and Recover Swarms of AUVs from Surface Vessels

ACUA Ocean and Bedrock Ocean Exploration have  announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding to accelerate the launch and recovery of swarms of autonomous underwater vehicles from ACUA’s Pioneer-class surface vessel.

Bedrock is a vertically integrated ocean-mapping company that uses compact, fully electric fleets of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and automated insight generation to deliver fast, cost-effective, high-resolution seafloor data. By operating underwater with stable, closely coupled sensor platforms, Bedrock overcomes the limitations of traditional ship-based surveys and long layback to provide better data quality, rapid mobilization, and lower operational risk.

The partnership agreement seeks to design and develop novel launch and capture mechanisms for the deployment of an initial swarm of three Bedrock AUVs. Utilizing ACUA’s Pioneer Mk2 vessel as a mothership from which to remotely deploy the AUV’s will accelerate transit to and from the operational site and reduce the need for costly crewed vessels. Additionally, moving to “nested robotic” systems reduces weather challenges, enabling year round operations from ACUA’s stable SWATH platform.

Combining the Bedrock and ACUA systems will transform the way that governments and industry collect and use seafloor data, enabling the systematic exploration of the oceans, monitoring of critical national infrastructure and collection of a wide range of geophysical, hydrographic and biodiversity data.