Stealthy Submarine Concept Unveiled
80 metres· Armament: 24 heavy-weight weapons (naval cruise missiles, F21 torpedoes, anti-ship missiles)· Up to 6 UUV (533mm) + 2 XLUUV· Special Forces dedicated facilities (trunks, storage rooms, vehicle and weapons, grouping areas…)· Two rim driven electric propulsion motors· Crew: 15 crew members + 12 to 20 pax· Submerged mission: > 40 days at speed of 8 kts
General Dynamics Mission Systems Wins $13.5 Mln Navy UUV Contract
General Dynamics Mission Systems said it was recently awarded a $13.5 million cost-plus fixed-fee and cost-only modification for continued engineering support, development, test and production of the Knifefish Surface Mine Countermeasure (SMCM) Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (UUV). This award is a modification to the original contract, bringing the post-milestone C phase of the effort to $62.1 million since September 2019.Knifefish SMCM is a medium class mine countermeasure UUV intended for deployment from the Navy's Littoral Combat Ship and other Navy vessels of opportunity. Knifefish SMCM will reduce
Barcodes to Drive Down Pipeline Inspection Costs
down the costs of subsea pipeline inspections.According to the companies involved, the solution would remove the need for surface vessels, traditionally used in pipeline inspection projects.Usually, surface vessels with acoustic positioning are used to monitor the deployment of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) or Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs). The subsea vehicles then collect the required information – such as a pipeline’s general aspect and route, anode consumption, free span, burial, and crossing areas – using observation sensors.The project relies on barcodes placed on
Overwatch: Advancing NATO’s Maritime Situational Awareness via Commercially Available Space-based Assets
“All the business of war, and indeed all the business of life, is to endeavour to find out what you don’t know by what you do”Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of WellingtonIt is hard to get past headlines painting the portrait of a world besieged physically and economically by a medical crisis on a global scale and a nation that has turned the national spotlight onto the fundamentals of its constitutional democracy, including the persistence of racism, the right to protest and the character of local and national security forces in the United States. Lost in this this mass media reporting
Seabed Imaging Re-imagined
of Southampton, with support from Sonardyne, under the Natural Environment Research Council’s OCEANIDS Marine Sensor Capital “BioCam” program, has gone a long way to resolving these challenges.During its first 24-hour deployment, a BioCam fitted to an Autosub6000 autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), from the UK’s National Oceanography Centre (NOC), mapped more than 50 times the area of a football pitch at photographic resolution – a rate 40 times that of conventional high resolution imaging systems. By the end of this dive, it had already created the largest continuous visual
Coral Reef Health Report: Palau’s Coral Reefs - A Jewel of the Ocean
The latest report from the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation finds Palau’s reefs had the highest coral cover observed on the Global Reef Expedition—the largest coral reef survey and mapping expedition in history.Scientists at the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation (KSLOF) have released their findings on the state of coral reefs in Palau. Their research, based on extensive underwater surveys, found Palau’s reefs had the highest live coral cover of all the reefs studied on the Global Reef Expedition, a scientific research mission to assess the health and resiliency of
Hydromea Launches LUMA X, Wireless Underwater Optical Modem
patent-pending subsea wireless communication modem LUMA X. The LUMA X can beam data using light at up to 10 Mbit/s with a 120-degree cone. With that, the LUMA X enables real-time streaming of HD-quality video and 4K images wirelessly through water – allowing the operators of autonomous underwater vehicles to monitor its interventions from the comfort of its control rooms onshore.“The wide-angle beam gives subsea vehicles connecting via the LUMA X a lot of freedom of movement,” said Felix Schill, co-founder and CTO of Hydromea. “The small size of the modem and its standard transparent
Ultrabeam, USS team up to deliver Autonomous Pipeline Survey
Ultrabeam Hydrographic teamed up with Unmanned Survey Solutions (USS) to conduct a pair of subsea gas pipeline inspection surveys in Northern Ireland. Both companies are based in the UK and offer unmanned platforms as an alternative to traditional manned survey vessels. The contract was awarded by Mutual Energy, which wanted experience on how unmanned autonomous platforms can increase the knowledge of their pipelines while reducing risk and overall cost."Mutual Energy contracted with Ultrabeam Hydrographic in August 2020 to perform inspection surveys of our Larne and Belfast
Saginaw Bay’s Marine Ecosystem Revival
moving forward with the design, permitting, construction, and restoration of the Coreyon Reef. The purpose of the rock reef restoration project is to restore off-shore rock reef spawning habitats that benefit Walleye, Lake Whitefish, and Lake Trout to name a few.JW Fishers SeaLion-2 Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) being lowered into the water. Photo: JW FishersThe project was approved and funded by a Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) grant of $980,000 and a grant of $25,000 from Saginaw Bay Watershed Initiative Network (Saginaw Bay WIN). The total project is just over $1 million. In the end
DOE, NOAA Challenge Innovators to Integrate Renewable Energy, Ocean Obs
of innovators who are bringing truly creative solutions to renewable energy for marine applications," said retired Navy Rear Adm. Tim Gallaudet, Ph.D., assistant secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and deputy NOAA administrator. "Harnessing wave energy for autonomous underwater vehicles shows great promise for supporting hurricane forecasting and also poses potential benefits for the application of unoccupied systems research and exploration more broadly, which connects to the heart of many of NOAA's critical mission areas.""This partnership with the Department of
Oceaneering ROVs for Harvey Gulf Subsea Solutions
U.S. subsea services firm Harvey Gulf Subsea Solutions has selected Oceaneering for ROV and support services onboard its four Jones act compliant offshore vessels. Oceaneering will provide eight Millennium Plus ROV systems, personnel, and accompanying survey suites in a multi-year deal supporting Harvey Gulf Subsea's operations in the Gulf of Mexico. Ed Galloway, who was appointed head of Harvey Gulf Subsea Solutions in August, having previously worked for Subsea 7 and Oceaneering, said: "Aligning with the global leader in the ROV industry and positioning them on the most versatile
Houston Mechatronics Selects OPENSEA for its Aquanaut Vehicle
Greensea, creator of OPENSEA, the universal open software architecture for the marine industry, announces that Houston Mechatronics Inc. (HMI) selected OPENSEA as the development platform for its revolutionary shape-shifting underwater vehicle, Aquanaut. HMI was able to leverage Greensea’s experience in subsea navigation and vehicle control while focusing their development efforts on their core competencies: robotics, manipulation and autonomy.“OPENSEA enabled us to quickly integrate an executive control and mission planning solution onto Aquanaut, our transforming AUV/ROV. The open and
RTSYS Hires Caux as Business Director
French based underwater acoustics and robotics company RTSYS said it has hired Pierre-Alexandre Caux as its new business director.Caux brings to the role 11 years of previous experience at ECA Group and deep knowledge of unmanned systems market.
'Marine Seismic Survey Disruptor' Gets Industry Funding
and monitoring carbon storage opportunities under the seabed.Blue Ocean Seismic Services has explained that its technology has been designed to be fully containerized, scalable, and modular allowing for deployment to survey locations across the globe."While collecting high-quality seismic data, the vehicle is anticipated to deliver substantial cost savings and to facilitate a significant reduction in survey time, thereby enabling results to be delivered much faster and at a lower cost than is available through current technologies. In addition to these commercial benefits, BOSS’ integrated autonomous
C-Innovation Orders Sonardyne Tech for ROV Ops in Brazil
Marine services company C-Innovation (C-I) has ordered a package of Sonardyne’s underwater positioning and navigation systems to support its operations offshore Brazil.Remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) on board six ROV support vessels (RSVs) in the country will be equipped with Sonardyne inertial, gyrocompass and Doppler technologies, as well as hybrid acoustic-inertial systems.C-I has ordered SPRINT inertial navigation systems (INS), a Lodestar attitude and heading reference system (AHRS), Syrinx Doppler velocity logs (DVLs) and Sonardyne’s hybrid acoustic-inertial underwater vehicle
PLA, USS Support University College London Course
The Port of London (PLA) Hydrographic department teamed up with Unmanned Survey Solutions (USS) to provide educational support to University College London’s (UCL) IHO CAT A course in Hydro-graphic Surveying.The PLA have supported the University by providing lectures in current Hydrographic techniques and equipment as well as supporting their student field projects. However, due to COVID-19 restrictions, the final element of this year’s support had to be conducted virtually. The PLA, in conjunction with the USS and UCL, devised a two-week schedule which incorporated a combination
'Pioneering' Deep Sea Mineral Exploration Mission Complete Off Norway
, Island Offshore said in a staement on Friday.The objective of this expedition was to drill into the mineral deposits and collect core sample from the formation. Credit: NPDROVsIn addition to the drilling activity, a lot of the exploration and search have been done using ROV (remotely operated vehicle). The ROV was filming the seabed in order for the geologists to orient themselves and decide which locations to take samples from. The ROV is also equipped with arms to pick up stones and sediment from the seabed, which was preliminarily analyzed by geologists on board.Now all valuable information
Saab Seaeye Cracks into the Superyacht Security Market
For superyacht owners, eyes beneath the waves, provided by intelligent underwater robotic vehicles, is a valuable resource. Yacht security company, MarineGuard, includes the Saab Seaeye Falcon underwater robotic vehicle as part of its security system for superyachts.MarineGuard is known for creating a ‘virtual security bubble’ around a yacht, and the Falcon is a powerful tool in this regard as it can examine a yacht’s hull millimeter by millimeter with its HD cameras, and descend down 1000 meters to explore the seabed below.Superyacht owners often view the underwater world live on
In a First, ROVOP Inspects Offshore Installation via Video Link
UK-based ROV services provider ROVOP has said it has delivered its first remote platform-based inspection, repair, and maintenance workscope, "effectively reducing the number of personnel required offshore," on Premier Oil's Balmoral floating production vessel in the UK North Sea.The ROV company carried out remote visual and NDT inspections of hull sections, flowlines, umbilicals, and risers, along with chain inspection, measurement, and cleaning, on the Balmoral unit with the help of a live video stream."Using the latest communications and modeling technology, ROVOP worked closely
VIDEO: Purdue Working on Mobile Docking Station for AUVs
Subsea robots can be great for environmental studies and search-and-rescue missions and, but eventually, they must return to a base to recharge their batteries and upload their data, which is a challenge if your robot is an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) exploring deep ocean waters.However, a Purdue University team has created a mobile docking system for AUVs, enabling them to perform longer tasks without the need for human intervention.“My research focuses on the persistent operation of robots in challenging environments,” said Nina Mahmoudian, an associate professor of mechanical
