DOF Extends VSAT Contract with Marlink

DOF Group has renewed its VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) services contract with Marlink for five more years, with options to further extend the services. Under the new contract announced at Nor-Shipping 2015, Marlink will provide customized VSAT services to 60 DOF owned offshore and subsea vessels, counting an additional eight vessels on the previous contract, including several imminent newbuilds.

Sound Velocity Profiling System Launched

Teledyne Oceanscience has announced the launch of rapidCAST, an automated sound velocity (SV) profiling system for moving vessels. With the capability to automatically cast and recover a high quality SV probe to 500 meters at 8 knots without an operator on deck, rapidCAST offers many of the benefits previously only available from large costly towed profilers while simultaneously giving surveyors the convenience and cost savings of a small and portable unit that is easy to mobilize…

MTR100 '13 LinkQuest Inc.

San Diego, Calif., U.S. LinkQuest Inc., of San Diego, Calif., manufactures precision acoustic instruments for offshore oil exploration, construction, drilling, survey, environmental study and other oceanographic applications. The company’s acoustic communication and positioning products are based on the innovative Broadband Acoustic Spread Spectrum (BASS) Technology and are widely used worldwide. LinkQuest’s…

Submersible Cyclops : Hull Design "Revolutionary"

OceanGate Inc. announced the completion of the initial carbon fiber hull design and feasibility study for its next generation manned submersible – Cyclops. Under a contract issued to Boeing Research & Technology (BR&T), OceanGate, the Applied Physics Laboratory at the University of Washington (APL-UW) and Boeing have validated the basic hull design for a submersible vehicle able to reach depths of 3,000 meters.

Jee to Host Subsea Installation Analysis Webinar

Webinar to focus on optimizing subsea installation analysis, helping companies minimize offshore time and costs. Jee Ltd., an independent subsea engineering and training company, will draw on its subsea installation analysis experience to host a free-to-attend webinar exploring the topic on September 11, 2014. Taking place globally, the webinar – “Optimizing Installation Analysis – a Pragmatic Approach” - will be presented by Jee Subsea Engineer…

GC Rieber Charter Agreement with Reach Subsea

GC Rieber Shipping ASA has entered into a time charter agreement with Reach Subsea for the CSV Polar King to support Norwegian University for Science and Technology’s (NTNU) scientific operation under the MarMine Project in the mid-Atlantic ridge. The project will deploy ROV, AUV and grabs for seabed mapping and sampling for geological and biological research related to marine mining. Estimated duration is three weeks.

The Autonomous Future of Seabed Mapping

No longer can we truly say “95 percent of the ocean is left unexplored.” In fact, thanks to advances in satellite monitoring by pioneers such as David Sandwell and colleagues, we now have coverage of the entire ocean. While these maps are only at a resolution of around 5 kilometers – less than current global maps of Mars and Venus – it has given us submarine topography data in locations we weren’t able to access previously.

IMarEST Supports Research into Collaborative Autonomous Fleets

Thompson holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Naval Architecture, and is a PhD candidate at the Australian Maritime College of the University of Tasmania. Greg Hellessey from the IMarEST’s Victoria Branch said that Thompson’s research was chosen because of its global potential: “Out of all the applications from across Australia, Fletcher’s was an absolute stand-out in that it was clear it would be ground-breaking work at a national and international level.

SCRIPPS Procures ROV from Shark Marine

SCRIPPS institution of OCEANOGRAPHY, an oceanic research institution on the southwestern coast of the United States, has acquired a Shark Marine Barracuda ROV. The Barracuda will be used in conjunction with the Shark Marine Navigator, procured by the institute a couple years back. The Barracuda is a high power, lightweight two man deployable ROV, packed with technology and plenty of thrust to get the job done. The ROV can operate at multiple power levels, from 2,000 to 6,000 watts.

BP Doubles Down on Deepwater

About 300 BP workers commute 150 miles here by helicopter, from the Louisiana coast to a deep-sea drilling platform that can produce more oil in a day than a West Texas rig can pump in a year. On the deck of Thunder Horse, they work two-week shifts, drink seawater from a desalination plant, and eat ribs and chicken ferried in by boat. On the ocean floor, robots provide remote eyes and arms as drills extract up to 265,000 barrels per day.

Saab Seaeye: Meeting the Challenges of Renewables

The renewable industry presents special challenges for underwater robotic vehicle operations with its shallow waters, high currents, intricate structures and, in some locations, unexploded ordnance. Saab Seaeye has found good success in the sector with a range of vehicles specially suited for the challenging tasks involved in building and maintaining the structures and interconnections. With a range of robotic systems that are ideally suited for the sector.

CoPilot Retrofitted onto Falcon ROV

SeeByte, a creator of smart software for unmanned maritime systems, announced that Heriot-Watt University has integrated CoPilot with its Seaeye Falcon 1256, an observation-class ROV. With assistance from Heriot-Watt University’s Ocean Systems Laboratory personnel, the SeeByte team integrated and tuned the system to operate with a Teledyne RDI Workhorse Navigator 600 KHz DVL. The work was conducted over a two day period including testing in Heriot-Watt University’s wave tank.

Optech to Present at OI China

Optech announced that it will attend the Oceanology International China 2014 conference in Shanghai, September 3-5, where Dr. Joong Yong Park will discuss coastal mapping trends and how new advanced data fusion techniques using data from a high-power green lidar and a hyperspectral sensor are providing unprecedented coastal environment information. Optech will also be exhibiting with sister Teledyne Marine companies in booth B50, where Dr. Park, Optech, Inc.

Policy Uncertainty Threatens to Slow Renewable Energy Momentum

IEA forecast sees renewable power as a cost-competitive option in an increasing number of cases, but facing growing risks to deployment over the medium term. The expansion of renewable energy will slow over the next five years unless policy uncertainty is diminished, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said today in its third annual Medium-Term Renewable Energy Market Report. According to the report…

Z-Boat Shipped to University of Washington Tacoma

Teledyne Oceanscience has shipped a custom Z-Boat 1800-RP to The University of Washington Tacoma to be used by Dr. Dan Shugar, Assistant Professor of Geoscience, when he heads out on two remote locations in Alaska and Canada this summer. The custom integration for the University of Washington Tacoma included the Rugged Z-Boat 1800RP, Teledyne Odom Hydrographic MB2 Multibeam, Teledyne RD Instruments RiverPro ADCP, a camera, IMU and onboard computer.

A Tool for Advancing Environmental Academic Research

Researchers at the Institute of Oceanology in Qingdao, China, are using the Signature55 current profiler to improve the understanding of El Niño and advance their environmental academic research. “Information about Western Boundary Currents in the lower latitudes of the Pacific and their influence on low frequency pulsing of warm currents are vital for scientific research. But so far we have had insufficient…

Hydroid, Kongsberg Launch New Offshore Survey/Exploration AUV

Hydroid, Inc., a manufacturer of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), in partnership with its parent company, Kongsberg Maritime, announced the release of the new Munin AUV. Designed jointly by the two companies, the Munin combines the size and deployability of the Hydroid Remus 600 AUV with the navigation systems and user interface of the Kongsberg Hugin AUV to give offshore users a capable and reliable solution for their survey and exploration needs.

MacArtney Inline Termination for Andritz Hydro Hammerfest

MacArtney is announced that tidal power array developer and supplier Andritz Hydro Hammerfest has recently taken delivery of a MacArtney Medium Voltage Inline Termination. Due to the link with the lunar cycle, tidal currents can be predicted in advance and with stable energy flow and fixed maintenance windows, there are reasons to believe that tidal power will become a significant part of the future renewable energy mix.

Collaboration Enhances Oil Spill Research

The University of South Florida’s (USF) College of Marine Science announced a new partnership with Agilent Technologies and the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) for analytical chemistry equipment to study oil spills. Funded by GoMRI and Agilent’s Research Support Program, the partnership will allow access to cutting-edge analytical instrumentation to better understand the effects of oil as well as other emerging contaminants in the environment.

STR Invests in Marine Navigation Systems

Subsea Technology & Rentals Ltd (STR); global specialists in the design, production and rental of advanced subsea technology for the offshore energy industry; informs it has invested in the latest generation of marine navigation systems with the acquisition of two Teledyne TSS Saturn 10 units. The Saturn fiber optic gyrocompass capitalizes on more than a century’s experience in marine navigation. Teledyne…