Future USS South Dakota Delivered to US Navy
The U.S. Navy accepted delivery of the 17th submarine of the Virginia class, the future USS South Dakota (SSN 790), on September 24.The next-generation attack submarine began construction in 2013 and is scheduled to be commissioned in early 2019.South Dakota is the seventh Virginia-class Block III submarine. Block III submarines feature a redesigned bow with enhanced payload capabilities, replacing 12 individual vertical launch tubes with two large-diameter Virginia Payload Tubes, each capable of launching six Tomahawk cruise missiles. This, among other design changes, reduced the submarines'
GTI to Supply Low Frequency Sources to Scripps
GeoSpectrum Technologies (GTI) announces it will supply the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (University of California San Diego) with two “C-BASS” low frequency sources.This new technology will allow researchers to conduct low frequency acoustic experiments more efficiently and less expensively than previously possible, GTI said. A successful field trial at Seneca Lake last December caught the attention of Scripps, resulting in the purchase.The fully coherent C-BASS are tuned to operate at 34 Hz and are capable of continuous operation. The energy efficient sources are physically
Marine Survey Work Starts for Greenlink Interconnector
The subsea field work for the Greenlink interconnector, one of Europe’s most important infrastructure projects, gets under way with the launch of the first of MMT’s survey vessels, MV Franklin.The offshore and nearshore surveying along the proposed route of the electricity link between the UK and Ireland is expected to take approximately 40 days, depending on weather conditions. MMT were awarded the contract for the Greenlink Marine Survey (GMS) by Greenlink Interconnector Ltd in August.Further survey work along the 170km marine route will be undertaken by vessels MV Seabeam, MV Edda Fonn
Mapping the Future
operations. Can you explain why this was chosen as a focus?In developing this prize, one of the market failures that was identified was the expense of mapping the sea floor because of the need for manned ships at sea. By focusing on autonomous operations, we incentivize the development of a range of new vehicles and approaches that can be deployed from the shore and map an area without any humans at sea.The finalists were announced in March; what were the key criteria used to select the teams that would proceed?The team solutions were assessed on their performance against 11 criteria: autonomy, collision
Kraken, ThayerMahan Demonstrate SeaScout for US Navy
dollars being spent on drone development. In its fiscal year 2019 budget, the U.S. Department of Defense requested US$9.6 billion for unmanned technology and related systems — a 28 percent increase from the previous year, according to a report released June 25 by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.“Unmanned systems and robotics are key technology areas that enable the United States to counter the range of evolving threats posed on the modern battlefield,” AUVSI president and CEO Brian Wynne said. The Navy has led all service branches in dollars put toward
UFRJ Nautilus: A Brazilian AUV Project
The UFRJ Nautilus AUV is an academic project designed to develop autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) technology in Brazil and participate in the annual Robosub competition. According to project founder, Lucas Armand, a Naval and Ocean Engineering graduate from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), the emergence of Nautilus has a lot to do with personal history: “I was having a difficult time in college, because I no longer identified myself with the course. The UFRJ Naval Engineering degree tends to be quite traditional – sometimes even old-fashioned – and I’ve
Wave and Tidal Challenges and Opportunities
A new report outlines the steps which need to be taken to ensure the U.K. remains at the forefront of wave and tidal energy sectors.The Wave & Tidal Transformation report released today by the National Subsea Research Initiative (NSRI) highlights the opportunities and challenges for technology developers and subsea supply chain companies looking to do business in these sectors. It outlines how and where companies can get involved with the developing sector and the requirements for industry driven research.To date, more than £450 million has been spent across the U.K. wave and tidal supply
New KONGSBERG Mapping Cloud Solution
KONGSBERG has unveiled its new data handling solution, Mapping Cloud, which provides easy storage of different types of data within the Cloud, offering an accessible and practical means of uploading and distributing real-time data, which can be subsequently made available to use in diverse applications and products.Mapping Cloud enables existing PC applications to be run in a Virtual Machine (VM) environment, and allows users to efficiently manage data processing, archiving and sharing with partners and customers through web browsers. With Mapping Cloud, data uploaded in e.g., Australia could be
Damen Floats Out Australian Icebreaker
Shipbuilder Damen said it has floated out the Antarctic Supply Research Vessel (ASRV) RSV Nuyina currently under construction at Damen Shipyards Galati in Romania.The carefully executed procedure was achieved by raising the water level in the yard’s dry dock by six meters; a process taking two days to complete. Once afloat, the vessel was maneuvered 250 meters to a quayside berth where the ongoing construction and outfitting process will take place.Damen is building the 160-meter-long icebreaking vessel for Serco subsidiary DMS Maritime on behalf of the Australian Department of the Environment
Total Makes Major Offshore UK Gas Discovery
French oil and energy group Total said on Monday it had made a major gas discovery on the Glendronach prospect, located off the coast of the Shetland islands in the North Sea.Total said preliminary tests on the new gas discovery confirmed good reservoir quality, permeability and well production deliverability, with recoverable resources estimated at about one trillion cubic feet (1 tcf).It said Glendronach, located near its Edradour field, will be tied back to the existing infrastructure and developed quickly and at low cost.Total said the discovery will extend the life of the West of Shetland infrastru
Olis Robotics Acquires Machine Learning Startup
Olis Robotics, developer of next-generation remote robotics software, announced it has acquired Seattle-based machine learning startup White Marsh Forests (WMF).Olis, formerly BluHaptics, has created a next-generation software platform built from the ground up that expands the capabilities of pilot-controlled service robots in the energy and space sectors and other harsh operating environments. The firm's technology enables vast improvements in robotic dexterity, precision, efficiency and overall mission success.The addition of machine learning capabilities from WMF allows robots to recognize and
Navy Divers to Have Automated Logging from Worn Dive Computers
For U.S. Navy deep-sea divers, time is of the essence. While operating 100 feet down, with little to no natural light—often in frigid temperatures and limited oxygen—time is everything.But for divers, time remains a precious commodity on the surface as well.For years, military divers have had to manually write and log information from dives while at sea into a system known as the Dive/Jump Reporting System (DJRS). Manual entries can be time-consuming and allow human error.Enter the Office of Naval Research (ONR) Global TechSolutions program, a rapid-response science and technology program
ISE Sells 6000m-rated AUV to China
Canadian underwater systems and robotics manufacturer International Submarine Engineering Ltd. (ISE) announced it has sold its latest ISE Explorer autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) to China Ocean Mineral Resource R&D Association (COMRA). This ISE Explorer AUV is the first rated for operations at 6,000 m depth.The modular design of the ISE Explorer enables it to carry multiple payloads in its spacious, swappable, and customizable payload section including Multibeam Echosounders, Sidescan Sonars, Sub-bottom Profilers, Synthetic Aperture Sonars, High Definition Cameras and Laser Systems, CTDs and
Kraken Awarded $1 Million Defense Contract
Kraken Robotic Systems Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Kraken Robotics Inc., has recently received a sonar signal processing software contract valued at approximately $1 million dollars from an international defense contractor. The 12-month contract is with a new customer and will be supported by Kraken’s recently established Acoustic Signal Processing Group.Kraken aid it is targeting additional international opportunities in this segment and sees major opportunities within the upcoming Canadian Underwater Warfare Suite Upgrade, the Canadian Surface Combatant program and other international
Morrison, iSIMS Introduce iJacket
Chet Morrison Contractors, an energy service company for the oil, gas and renewables industries, has formed a strategic partnership with iSIMS to launch a new optimized method in jacket and foundation design.The patented iJacket is more structurally optimized than the conventional true X-braced jacket design, supporting the same deck load, conductor/riser count, drilling deck, wind turbine or other payload as its conventional counterpart, the developers said. The design is engineered to provide significant cost savings and reduce material and labor requirements over traditional foundations and jackets
Aker Bets on Software Engineers for Its Oil Business
When the owners of Norwegian oil firm Aker BP decided to digitise its assets and operations, they searched high and low for the right software company. But they failed to find a suitable one.So instead they set up their own, Cognite, to create digital maps of Aker BP's oil industry assets, integrating data from equipment such as pumps, heat and pressure sensors, maintenance records and even staff rotas to improve efficiency and safety.Less than two years later, Cognite is selling its software to Aker BP's rivals and one competitor, Sweden's Lundin Petroleum, has even agreed to share its
Sonardyne Aids US Navy Underwater Vehicle Testing
Underwater target tracking technology from Houston-based Sonardyne Inc., has been chosen by the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), Carderock Division for testing subsea systems and underwater vehicles in development for the Navy and wider maritime industry.Located in Maryland, Carderock Division is the U.S. Navy's research, engineering, modelling and test center for surface and undersea technologies. It is the largest, most comprehensive establishment of its kind in the world. Thanks to its proximity to the Gulf Stream, Carderock’s South Florida Ocean Measurement Facility (SFOMF)
A System of Systems Approach to Mine Countermeasures
A team of underwater, surface and aerial unmanned vehicles was recently deployed Newport, R.I. to demonstrate a “System of Systems” approach to expeditionary mine-countermeasures (MCM).The multi domain unmanned assets were deployed by Teledyne Marine and its industry partners at The Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division Newport during the 2018 Advanced Naval Technology Exercise (ANTX) August 29-31.The multi-vehicle, multi-company demonstration began with a Power Docks Blue Isles Autonomous Power Microgrid platform simulating providing power to all vehicles. A Teledyne Oceanscience
5 Minutes with Mike Read, President, Teledyne Marine
?We are optimistic on the health of the marine market across all market sectors over the next 12 to 24 months. Our interconnect and instruments businesses are beginning to see the effects of stabilization in what has been a weak energy market over the past few years. Interest in our autonomous subsea vehicles and interconnect for both U.S. and international government applications has been strong with expectation to continue to grow. Finally, due to the aging of U.S. infrastructure and increased demand on the global fish supply, we expect the civil engineering market and aquaculture markets to strengthen
Fundraising Campaign Launched For 10-Year Dolphin Research Project
Dr. Richard Connor, Professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts, has embarked on a journey to Shark Bay in the western part of Australia where he has studied a wild population of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins since 1982.Dr. Connor is the co-Director of the Dolphin Alliance Project (DAP), and President of the nonprofit Dolphin Alliance Project, Inc., which is aggressively seeking donations to continue funding DAP research.The Dolphin Alliance Project’s mission is to learn everything they can about these unique underwater creatures during the Dolphin Decade, an ambitious ten-year
US Destroyer Wreckage Discovered off Remote Alaskan Island
in undersea technology, many developed by the Office of Naval Research, are helping to reveal the forgotten histories of long-ago valor.After multibeam sonar mounted to the side of the research ship Norseman II identified a promising target, the team sent down a deep-diving, remotely operated vehicle to capture live video for confirmation. “There was no doubt,” said expedition leader Eric Terrill, an oceanographer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and co-founder of Project Recover. “We could clearly see the broken stern, the gun and rudder control, all consistent with
Port of Antwerp Tests Autonomous Sounding Boat
Port of Antwerp has reached a new milestone with the introduction of a fully automatic sounding boat that employs unique technology. The vessel, named the Echodrone, is a prototype that is currently being developed to supplement the other operational sounding boat, the Echo.Both of these carry out measurements of the water depth everywhere in the port so as to guarantee safe passage for shipping. The cloud-based technology – a first – has been developed in partnership between the Port Authority and dotOcean and is only one of the many initiatives being taken by the Port Authority in the
Fugro Advances Bathymetric Lidar Mapping Capabilities
Fugro is introducing a new bathymetric lidar system that delivers industry-leading depth penetration and point densities for nearshore and coastal mapping. Known as RAMMS (Rapid Airborne Multibeam Mapping System), the field-proven technology promises to deliver an efficient and cost-effective solution, dramatically improving upon other bathymetric lidar mapping capabilities.“Traditional bathymetric lidar technology requires customers to compromise between price, depth penetration and data density,” said Ed Saade, president of Fugro USA and regional director for Fugro’s Marine Division
Hunting Pipes and Cables at a Lower Cost
A new way to hunt down and survey buried submarine pipelines, energy cables and communication cables, comes as Innovatum teams up their Smartrak magnetic sensor system to a Saab Seaeye Sabertooth autonomous robotic vehicle.As Innovatum’s Smartrak is the smallest survey system of its type, high quality data is now available at a much lower cost.Skimming just two meters off the seabed in shallow turbulent waters - typical of installation sites - Sabertooth is the only autonomous vehicle able to handle the out-rigged Smartrak, whilst its iCON intelligent control system thinks for itself.“I&rsqu
Satellite Derived Bathymetry Aids Hydrocarbon Exploration
U.K. based marine geospatial products provider TCarta said it has delivered satellite derived bathymetry (SDB) to one of the world’s largest oil and gas producers, Total SA, who will use the water depth data for preparing seismic survey works off the coast of Myanmar.The SDB dataset, which covered a 30-square-kilometer area around Preparis Island in the Bay of Bengal, was generated by digitally extracting water depth measurements from multispectral imagery acquired by the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellite. The resulting bathymetric data had a point spacing of 10 meters with
