US Navy Deploys a Fleet of Saildrones to the Caribbean
. “We will eventually have the opportunity to work through the command and control of both manned and unmanned forces operating throughout our region.”The 10 Saildrones will serve as the initial unmanned vessels in the operation. Plans are to add additional USVs, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and manned maritime forces over the next few months to further challenge C2 integration and to expand the MDA coverage.“We were able to demonstrate coordinated operations of manned and unmanned forces during UNITAS LXIV, a multinational maritime exercise, but that was for a relatively short
Unmanned Maritime Systems Development Accelerates
Robotics WAM-V, MARTAC’s Devil Ray T-38, Ocean Aero TRITON, Open Ocean Robotics Data Xplorer, Saildrone Explorer, Seasats X3 and SeaTrac SP48.Digital Horizon was a three-week event in the Middle East focused on employing artificial intelligence and 15 different unmanned systems (12 USVs and 3 UAVs), many of which operated in the region for the first time. The exercise, meant to be a continuation of IMX22 but at a significantly larger scale, was hosted by Task Force 59, and builds on the work done during IMX22.Digital Horizon brought together new, emerging unmanned technologies and combined
U.S. Navy: Unmanned Maritime Systems Development Accelerates
Advanced Robotics WAM-VMARTAC’s Devil Ray T-38Ocean Aero TRITONOpen Ocean Robotics Data XplorerSaildrone ExplorerSeasats X3, and SeaTrac SP48.Digital Horizon was a three-week event in the Middle East focused on employing artificial intelligence and 15 different unmanned systems (12 USVs and 3 UAVs), many of which operated in the region for the first time. The exercise, meant to be a continuation of IMX22 but at a significantly larger scale, was hosted by Task Force 59, and builds on the work done during IMX22.Digital Horizon brought together new, emerging unmanned technologies and combined
NEOTEK Launches Subsea Data Service SEA360
SEA360 team is composed of specialists, engineers, technicians and operational vessel crew. They operate at sea using a fleet of autonomous underwater drones (AUV RTSYS COMET and AUV RTSYS Nemosens) and, depending on the needs, ROVs, buoys and instrumented underwater stations. NEOTEK has its own fleet of UAVs and fixed survey platforms.These marine data services are applied to rapid environmental impact and assessment measurements, pre and post marine construction surveys, underwater inspections of structures, cables, and pipes, UXO detection, marine geophysics, hydrography and marine archaeology.Sonar
DriX USV Takes Part in Military Exercise in Bahrain
. Maritime Domain Awareness can be defined as the effective understanding of military and non-military events in the maritime environment that could impact the security, safety, economy, or environment of a nation or a region.Exail’s DriX USV was among the 15USVs and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) selected to participate in the exercise, which staged a Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) mission. The USVs and UAVs were tasked with gathering data on the surface in order to detect and identify potential threats. One of the main requirements was for the drones to communicate with each other using
VIDEO: BOEM, NOAA Use Drones to Tag Endangered Whales
is a component of a larger BOEM study into the Spatial and Acoustic Behavior of Endangered Large Whales to address gaps in information on a variety of endangered large whale species – including sei, North Atlantic right, and fin whales – to better inform offshore wind energy area selection. UAVs enable researchers to target specific animals in a group or conduct multi-group taggings, and the collected data will also aid in conservation efforts.“The use of UAVs to tag whales is the first major innovation related to attaching tags to whales,” said Dr. David Wiley, research ecologist
UK: Eleven Firms Win Offshore Wind Growth Partnership Grants
developer and stakeholder communities.Ocean Information Services Focusing on cetacean movements, this project sets out to extend the deployment life of subsea loggers through use of recent developments in energy management. Further developments in water-air communication links paves the way for UAVs to harvest information from subsea sensors which will lead to improvements in personnel safety, reducing the carbon footprint of operations and reducing operating costs.PanGeo Subsea PanGeo will undertake a demonstration project to validate a new data collection concept that supports GHG emission
EMILY: Hydronalix Finds new Uses for Unmanned Surface Vessel Technology
at Patuxent River, Md. “Some of the aircraft systems and technologies we developed together are still flying with the Air Force and NOAA.”Photo courtesy Hydronalix That small business was sold to a prime, and founder Mulligan, had a non-compete agreement that kept him out of UAVs. But, Brescia said, the good ideas developed through the SBIR/STTR program have continued to evolve into more and better ideas.Mulligan started another company that focused on unmanned surface vehicles. Through the SBIR process of “extend derive and complete,” a number of the
Pipeline IMR: An All-seeing Eye
infrastructure and of seabed life.IMR-ready: Ecotone CEO, Oddbjoern RoedstenIt excelled at pipelines, where anomalies could range from torn seals to worn welds, corrosion and leaks. The UHI could find flaws on silt-covered pipes that would remain invisible to an ROV using regular cameras and lights or UAVs with available sensor arrays. By 2016, the UHI had evolved for pipeline IMR into SpectraPipe with analysis and archiving software understood to be faster and safer than x-ray or acoustic methods of pipeline maintenance surveying.“It’s all automated based on machine-learning principles