Metron Get Navy R&D LDUUV Contract

The Department of Defense award Metron Inc. a contract for development of a large displacement unmanned undersea vehicle (LDUUV). Metron, Inc., of Reston, Va.,is being awarded a $7,287,619 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract  to include in-lab integration and testing of autonomy and mission planning software with bench test hardware selected for deployment on the LDUUV. This one-year contract includes two…

Exploring the Abyss

GEOMAR & theABYSS AUV Study the S. For most of human history, the size and depth of the Earth’s oceans have made it nearly impossible for surveyors and scientists to collect valuable and comprehensive data on the seafloor. In recent years, this led to the question:  “Why is it that we cannot map our own planet as well as we’ve mapped the Moon and Mars?”  Since the development of sonar instruments at the turn of the 20th century…

Unmanned Surface Vessels: Wave Glider SV3

In recent years, the proliferation of unmanned surface vessels deployed for hydrographic missions has mushroomed as the collaborative effects of propulsion, software and sensor technologies has cumulatively made these vessels, large and small, more capable for a multitude of missions. In this edition, and on the heels of the Ocean Business exhibition last month in Southampton, Marine Technology Reporter examines recent developments.

GE Oil & Gas Sign GofM Deepwater Contracts

GE Oil & Gas has signed an $84-million agreement with PEMEX Exploration and Production to supply and install subsea wellheads for PEMEX’s deepwater and ultra-deepwater drilling projects in the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf of Mexico is a strategic zone for the hydrocarbon industry, since it is estimated to hold more than 50 percent of Mexico’s potential or prospective resources. However, such reserves are located in deepwater and ultra-deepwater sites…

Ross Laboratories Delivers Turn-Key Sweep System

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – St. Paul District has taken delivery of a turn-key multi-channel sweep system from Ross Laboratories of Seattle, Wash. The system is installed on a 24 foot Armstrong Marine aluminum work boat. Ross Laboratories was awarded the contract to provide the boat and survey electronics as a "turnkey” system. The Ross “Mini-Sweep” is a small boat multi-channel survey system designed for inland rivers and shallow water surveying.

FarSounder Sponsor Superyacht Technical Workshop

FarSounder is a sponsor for Day 2 of the 2013 American Superyacht Forum in Las Vegas, hosted by The Superyacht Group. FarSounder, Inc. is a U.S. based high technology marine electronics manufacturer specializing in underwater acoustics, and the provision of realtime 3D sonar systems. The workshops and exhibits at the American Superyacht Forum will run throughout the day, providing an opportunity for…

Classification Society Further Expands its Role

Bureau Veritas to acquire Sievert Group, a leading provider of non-destructive testing & inspection services, notable for oil & gas pipelines work. Established in 1986, Sievert has developed a comprehensive suite of services meeting the needs of industrial sectors, primarily the oil & gas industry. The company is specialized in conventional and advanced non-destructive testing services. It has state of the art capabilities ranging from X- and Gamma ray radiographic testing…

Seatronics to Supply Subsea Multiplexer System

Seatronics secures £400,000 contract to supply RTS Gen 5 multiplexer (MUX) systems to Bibby Remote Intervention Ltd. According to Seatronics, the Gen 5 is the most versatile survey multiplexer system available on the market offering unprecedented communication links and 850W of power capacity subsea. The system enables a complete survey spread including but not limited to dual head multibeam echosounder…

University of Gothenburg Selects HUGIN AUV

The University Of Gothenburg has chosen Kongsberg Maritime’s HUGIN autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) to expand Sweden’s capabilities in the field of marine research using unmanned platforms. The HUGIN, which will be funded by grants from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation and managed by a project team with representatives from the University of Gothenburg, Chalmers University of Technology and Stockholm University…

Wallace Joins Rovco as CTO

U.K.-based subsea company Rovco has appointed Dr. Iain Wallace o its senior management team as chief technology officer (CTO). A former technical lead for the European Space Agency, Wallace will drive the development of a real-time 3D vision system for ROVs and AUVs. He will also explore how artificial intelligence can be used to solve asset integrity issues by extracting actionable information from traditional video survey data.

Klein's Mine Hunting Capabilities on Display

Klein Marine Systems, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitcham Industries, Inc., said it has concluded a week of trials and demonstrations in conjunction with the Mine Hunting Challenge and Industry Days in Zeebrugge, Belgium. In the waters outside the Belgian Navy's Mine Hunting Training Center, the sonar systems manufacturer showcased its new Klein 5900, the latest high-resolution, high-speed multi-beam side scan sonar towed by the Seagull…

EdgeTech Sonar Utilized in USS Indianapolis Discovery

Manufacturer of high resolution sonar imaging systems and underwater technology EdgeTech said its AUV-based side scan sonar system played a key role in the recent discovery of the USS Indianapolis wreckage 5,500 meters deep in the Philippine Sea. The sinking of the USS Indianapolis had the greatest loss of life from a single ship in the history of the U.S. Navy. The EdgeTech 2205 AUV-based sonar system…

New Wave Generators for Indonesian Hydrodynamic Lab

Bosch Rexroth said it has been awarded a contract to install two electrical wave generator systems for Indonesian Hydrodynamic Laboratory (IHL), an advanced research laboratory of BPPT (The Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology). The new systems will replace the original hydraulic system supplied by Rexroth 25 years ago. IHL has sophisticated facilities, including experimental tanks, for testing many types of ocean vessels.

Navy Awards Contract for Columbia Class Submarine Development

The Navy awarded a $5.1 billion contract to General Dynamics Electric Boat for Integrated Product and Process Development (IPPD) of the Columbia Class submarine Sept. 21. The IPPD contract award is for the design, completion, component and technology development and prototyping efforts for the Columbia Class Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarines (SSBNs). This work will also include United Kingdom unique efforts related to the common missile compartment.

Applied Acoustics Supplies 500th USBL System

Applied Acoustics said it has reached a company milestone with its latest contract to supply subsea positioning equipment to a major European subsea pipeline contractor. Contractors working in the Gulf of Finland in the eastern Baltic Sea have selected Applied Acoustics’ Nexus 2 USBL system to carry out sidescan sonar surveys in advance of engineering works as well as for use in marine archaeological operations. The award of this contract marks the 500th USBL system that the Great Yarmouth, U.K.

Makai & Triton Software Launch Advanced Ocean Vector Chart Service

Makai Ocean Engineering will collaborate with Triton Software Ltd to integrate the innovative Ocean Vector Chart Service (OVCS) and provide access to high-resolution nautical charts directly in MakaiPlan, a submarine cable route planning software. This partnership introduces a powerful new feature to MakaiPlan by incorporating Triton Software’s API and hosted server for Lloyd’s Register’s worldwide vector dataset.

Sonardyne Introduces New Hybrid Acoustic-Inertial Navigator

Sonardyne International Ltd announced the launch of SPRINT-Nav U, the world's smallest hybrid acoustic-inertial navigator designed specifically for compact marine robotic platforms.This technology delivers the proven performance of Sonardyne's SPRINT-Nav family in a package measuring 135 mm tall by 114 mm in diameter and weighing only 600 grams in water.SPRINT-Nav U represents an advancement for operators of small ROVs…

WASSP Equips Multibeam Sonars with Norwegian Subsea’s MRUs

Norwegian Subsea’s Motion Reference Units (MRUs) have been integrated with WASSP’s multibeam sonar systems, offering enhanced motion data accuracy and performance for offshore applications.Designed for simple setup and operation, Norwegian Subsea MRUs offer comparable heave accuracy to RTK-enabled systems without requiring RTK infrastructure.This enables precision depth correction for multibeam data when external corrections are not available…

Smarter Than Us

Geoffrey Hinton, a University of Toronto professor who was awarded the Nobel prize in physics in 2024 for his work in AI, has predicted that AI could surpass human intelligence within 20 years.The pace of AI development is now, in Hinton’s words, “very, very fast.”The latest issue of Offshore Engineer magazine looks at how it is being developed within the industry.The article titled The Higher the Stakes…

Subsea Vision & Photogrammetry Lab Formed

Offshore robotics company FORSSEA ROBOTICS chose GMS as main technical partner to certify its real-time visual positioning technologies. A joint laboratory will be created to develop a common offer covering camera calibration, subsea image treatment and innovative photogrammetry solutions.FORSSEA ROBOTICS decided last year to adapt its Atoll ROV embedded visual docking technology into a stand-alone product.