WHOI Names Murray Deputy Director & VP for Research

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) announced that Dr. Richard W. Murray has accepted the position of the Deputy Director & Vice President for Research of the institution. He will assume the office on September 1, 2019.A geochemist whose research focuses on interpreting chemical records of climate change and volcanism in marine sediments, Murray joins WHOI from Boston University, where he has been since 1992 and is currently a professor of Earth and Environment.

A New USV for Ocean Surveying

A new unmanned surface vehicle (USV) designed for the Chinese market offers an open and low-cost platform to measure water current and direction. Nortek China has integrated Doppler instrumentation on the vehicle to help better meet user requirements for ocean surveying.The new USV has an IPC (Industrial Personal Computer) as the main operation platform and uses Remote Desktop, a remote control technique, to communicate with all the instruments installed.

Greensea Expands, Again

Greensea recently added key personnel to its engineering team in its Plymouth, Mass., office to support their hull robotics program. James Truman, Senior Robotics Engineer, is leading the development of Greensea’s latest technology, a hull crawling robot with precise hull-relative navigation and autonomy capabilities. Assisting James on the hull robotics program is Sam Fladung, Robotics Engineer.“James is one of the best engineers I know.

FET Inks Deal to Expand Shallow Water Ops

Forum Energy Technologies' (FET) Subsea Product Line has signed a contract for the sale of an electric Sub Atlantic Super Mohawk II remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and Dynacon Launch and Recovery (LARS) system to a North American subsea organization. The ROV will be used for shallow water operations in the Northeastern United States, marking the company’s first sale for river bed assessments alongside…

Kraken Achieves Military Standard Certification

Kraken Robotics Inc. subsidiary Kraken Robotic Systems Inc. has completed military standard certification testing of the KATFISH-M, a ruggedized version of Kraken’s KATFISH Towed Synthetic Aperture Sonar Platform.KATFISH-M incorporates a Synthetic Aperture Sonar (SAS) in a compact, lightweight and hydro-dynamically stable towed body. It uses advanced signal processing and algorithms to provide real-time…

Maritime Robotics Lands $12M Investment to Power International Growth

Maritime Robotics, a provider of uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) and autonomous navigation systems in the maritime industry, has closed a $12 million capital raise, which will be used to accelerate business growth and international expansion.The funding round was co-led by the Nordic cleantech fund NRP Zero and the Norwegian state-owned fund Nysnø Climate Investment, with significant participation from Umoe and Holta Invest.As the market for maritime autonomous vessels continues to grow rapidly…

Unique Group’s USV Wins UK Ports Innovation Award 2025

Unique Group has been awarded the UK Ports Innovation Award 2025, recognizing the Group's commitment to advancing subsea robotics and hydrographic surveying with Unmanned Surface Vessel technology. The award was presented at the UK Ports Conference and Awards Ceremony on September 3, 2025.The UK Ports Committee nominated Unique Group for the award in recognition of its advancements in subsea robotics and hydrographic surveying.

Greensea IQ to Host First Public Demonstration of Bayonet 350 AUGV

Greensea IQ, a developer of autonomous robotic systems for subsea and nearshore operations, will host the first public demonstration of its Bayonet 350 Autonomous Underwater Ground Vehicle (AUGV) on June 23, 2025, at the Hotel del Coronado’s North Beach in San Diego, California. The demonstration will take place ahead of the 24th World Dredging Congress & Exposition (WODCON XXIV) and is open to invited…

New Sensors Expected to Reduce Illegal Immigration Across English Channel

French and British authorities have ordered infrared panoramic detection systems from French company HGH to help reduce illegal immigration across the English Channel.The two countries have previously signed a “smart border” agreement worth 72.2 million euros for the period 2022-2023. The aim is to use advanced technologies to secure the coastline and prevent people drowning onboard makeshift boats.HGH will provide its SPYNEL solutions which allow for permanent and continuous surveillance.

Further Delay on Greater Stella

Ithaca Energy is facing a further delay of almost a year to start-up of its Greater Stella Area (GSA) development hub project off the UK due to stalled modification work by Petrofac on the field’s floating production, storage and offloading unit. Here is an update regarding the schedule for completion of the “FPF-1” floating production facility modifications programme and start-up of the GSA production hub.

Borstad Receives Val Shaw Memorial Award

Dr. Gary Borstad has received the Val Shaw Memorial Award in recognition of his career-long contribution and lifetime achievements in practical remote sensing applied to natural resource management. The award was presented at the 40th Canadian Symposium on Remote Sensing in Fredericton, New Brunswick on June 25, 2019. The Val Shaw Award was established in 1990 in memory of Val Shaw, an executive with…

Tappan Zee Constructors ‘See’ Below the Hudson

With Trimble Marine Construction Systems and Teledyne Marine Imaging, bridge deconstruction projects can now have pinpoint accuracy.The Project @ a GlanceCustomer Profile: Tappan Zee Constructors, LLC is a consortium – including Fluor Enterprises, Inc., American Bridge Company, Granite Construction Northeast, Inc., and Traylor Bros., Inc. – that was hired to design and build the new Governor Mario M.

Poland Employs New Seismic Tech

The Polish state-controlled oil and gas company PGNiG said that its geophysical services provider Geofizyka Toruń SA became the first company in Europe to employ new seismic data acquisition technologies in searching for hydrocarbon deposits.The Polish oil and gas company said in a press release that the company is replacing the hitherto used cabled geophone networks with ultra-lightweight wireless nodal sensors.

Geoscience Software Gift to University of Malaya

GeoSoftware, part of CGG’s Geoscience division, has donated twenty of its advanced geoscience software suites to the University of Malaya (UM) in Malaysia. The initiative will enrich the student experience at UM’s Department of Geology while supporting its mission to train world-class professionals for domestic or international careers in petroleum geosciences.The software will be used to teach quantitative…

NOAA Taps Woolpert for Chesapeake Bay Watershed Study

Woolpert announced it has been selected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) to perform hydrographic surveying and collect bathymetric data for hydrodynamic modeling in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. The $5.5 million award with a $1.4 million option, funded in part by the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, is being administered through NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey…

20’ WAM-V Delivered to XPrize Finalist TeamTao

The first 20’ WAM-V has been delivered to TeamTao, a finalist in the Shell Ocean Discovery XPrize competition.The new WAM-V has a range of over 400 nautical miles, can carry up to 600 lbs of payload, has a top speed of 15+ knots, and has passed rigorous open-ocean testing to ensure it is a stable platform for sensor deployment.“This is an exciting addition to our product lineup,” said Marine Advanced Research President and CEO Mark Gundersen.

OiA '19 & GEBCO Seabed 2030

Seabed 2030 quickfire presentation and panel discussion to feature among highlights as Oceanology International conference and exhibition celebrates its half-century in San DiegoOcean scientists engaged in the field of bathymetry might feel it is incumbent upon them to issue a dutiful smile when someone asks if they’ve managed to ‘get to the bottom’ of their current project. Nevertheless, this trite utterance contains an unwittingly painful and pertinent observation.

The “Disruption” in AUV Trends

Missions—it’s all a question of missions. The mission decides the payload, battery capacity, size and processing power of an autonomous underwater vehicle, or AUV. King among these is payload, from which market disruption is just waiting to happen. Changing payloads of artificial intelligence, management software, and researcher resourcefulness now combine with entrepreneurial technologists to inject uncertainty into AUV market forecasts.On a stormy night in an arctic sea…

Melhuish Joins WFS Technologies

Wireless subsea technology provider WFS Technologies has appointed Moray Melhuish to the newly-created post of commercial director, responsible for building on the success of its industry-advanced innovations as well as increase its portfolio of national and international projects.Melhuish was previously business development director at independent ROV specialist, ROVOP, and prior to this was responsible for the sales and marketing work-class ROV systems at i-Tech, a division of Subsea 7.

3D at Depth Expands

Subsea laser LiDAR (SL) technology and 3D data visualization solutions specialist 3D at Depth said it has expanded several global office locations and launched a new portfolio of services designed to support cohesive workflow efficiencies for offshore oil field design through decommissioning. The new line includes: terrestrial dimensional control to support subsea data collection workflows; subsea tooling design solutions; remote sensing, and real-time LiDAR data collection.