New Funding to Advance Hull Cleaning and Inspection Robot Deployment

Canada’s Ocean Supercluster (OSC) is participating in a $940K Amphibian UWILD Remote Robotic Platform Project.The robot is expected increase the speed and accuracy of ship hull inspections and reduce the risks associated with diving crews.The project will allow Marine Thinking to develop a Launch and Recovery System (LARS) for Innvotek’s Amphibian “Underwater Inspection in Lieu of Dry-docking” (UWILD)…

ROVs: Superyacht Security Success for Falcon

Another superyacht security contract win for MarineGuard sees it order another Saab Seaeye Falcon underwater robotic vehicle as part of its security resource package.As superyachts become larger and more technologically sophisticated, MarineGuard see the Falcon, with its intelligent future-flexible control technology, playing an increasing role in the growing world of superyacht security. For underwater…

Irving Shipbuilding Invests in Ocean Technology Programs

Irving Shipbuilding Inc. said it has made a multimillion dollar investment to support marine innovation and commercialization in Nova Scotia and across Canada. The shipbuilder is investing $4.52 million in the newly established Centre for Ocean Ventures and Entrepreneurship (COVE), an ocean innovation centre to be located on the waterfront in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The investment over the next five years represents the largest private sector contribution COVE has received to date.

SBG Systems Debuts New Post-processing Software

SBG Systems has unveiled its new in-house post-processing software Qinertia at the Ocean Business show in Southampton, U.K. After the survey, this full-feature software gives access to offline RTK corrections, and process inertial and GNSS raw data to further enhance accuracy and secure the survey. For more than 10 years, SBG Systems has been designing inertial navigation systems from the internal Inertial Measurement Unit to the filtering with GNSS data.

Greensea IQ Nets $1.9M NAVSEA Contract to Enhance ROV System

Greensea IQ has secured a Phase II contract from the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) to enhance the capabilities of a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) platform by integrating manipulators and providing one-operator control of the ROV and manipulator system.The contract, including options, is valued at $1.9 million and spans up to three years if all options are exercised.The integration of the systems will allow ROVs to perform increasingly complex tasks in marine environments…

Sustainable Marine Ready to Deliver Tidal Energy in Early '22

Sustainable Marine reports it is set to demonstrate that Nova Scotia can produce 'clean' and predictable energy from its world-famous tidal streams, after completing construction of its substation at Grand Passage.“We are on target to connect the platform to the substation in the first quarter of next year,” said company Jason Hayman, CEO, while attending the annual Marine Renewables Canada conference in Halifax this week.

Offshore Crane Maker Huisman Launches Drone Inspection Service

Huisman, a Dutch company best known for its cranes for the offshore energy industry, has recently launched a drone inspection service for the inspection of cranes, drilling, and pipelay equipment.The company said the service is offered from Huisman's locations in the Netherlands, Singapore, China, the USA, and Brazil."Huisman has extended its service portfolio with drone inspections based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and high-resolution camera technology to offer advanced levels of safety…

Rovco and Vaarst Unite Under New Brand Beam

High-technology offshore wind companies Rovco and Vaarst have entered into merger, creating a new brand Beam to boost their offshore wind services.In uniting their capabilities across research, development, and deployment, Beam will provide innovative automation technologies to service offshore wind, and deliver efficiencies and reduced costs for survey and subsea work across all lifecycle stages.Under the unified Beam brand…

OPT Finds Tech Delivery Partner for Mexican Maritime Markets

U.S.-based low-carbon marine power, data, and service solutions provider Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) has signed a new reseller agreement with a Latin America-based partner focused on supporting the Mexican offshore and maritime markets.The partnership significantly expands OPT’s commercial footprint across Latin America, leveraging the reseller’s regional presence and relationships within Mexico.Under the agreement…

Brix Marine Building Research Vessel for Northrop Grumman

Boatbuilder Brix Marine (formerly Armstrong Marine USA) has been contracted by aerospace and defense technology company, Northrop Grumman, to build a catamaran survey-research vessel, slated for fall 2021 completion.The 44- by 16-foot vessel is Brix’s third IPS-drive catamaran; the first two were 4216-CTC models, both delivered in 2019, to UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography (R/V Bob and Betty Beyster) and Orca Maritime, Inc.

No Need for Mothership: Kongsberg Launches HUGIN Endurance AUV

Norway's Kongsberg Maritime has announced the next generation of its HUGIN Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) that can carry out long missions without a mothership.Named HUGIN Endurance, Kongsberg Maritime says its new AUV boosts operational duration to approximately 15 days, enabling extended survey and inspection missions far from shore."This longevity allows HUGIN Endurance to undertake extensive missions without the support of a mothership.

HII Debuts REMUS 620 Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV)

HII’s Mission Technologies division debuted a new medium-class unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV): REMUS 620.Building on the design philosophy of the REMUS 300 — recently selected by the U.S. Navy as the program of record for the Lionfish Small UUV — the REMUS 620 has a battery life of up to 110 hours and a range of 275 nautical miles.“Retaining a forward strategic advantage requires the ability to deliver a multitude of effects from under the sea…

Rovco, HOM Partner Up for Offshore Wind Work in Japan

UK-based subsea robotic services firm Rovco, has signed an agreement with Japan's Horizon Ocean Management (HOM) for through-life subsea asset integrity and balance of plant survey solutions for the Japanese offshore wind market.HOM is a subsidiary joint venture between Japanese conglomerate Mitsui and Hokutaku, a Japan-based wind turbine maintenance company.HOM and Rovco will work together to study the Japanese offshore wind market and learn more about demand in the country.

IUEM Chooses iXblue Equipment

Navigation, positioning and underwater imaging solutions provider iXblue said it has been chosen by the European Institute for Marine Studies (IUEM) to provide 8 Canopus long baseline (LBL) transponders for a geodetic mission off the coast of Sicily. Deployed on the seabed, 2,500 meters below the surface, the Canopus transponders will measure the crustal deformation along the North-South Alfeo faults with a millimeter-scale resolution over the course of four years.Hubert Pelletier…

New Product: SeaQ Remote for Autonomous Ship Ops

As the move toward advanced remote and autonomous operation of vessels proceeds at speed, Vard Electro introduced SeaQ Remote to facilitate a new generation of larger robotic vessels.The new product, which will see its debut delivery on a total of 14 newbuild marine robotic vessels contracted with shipbuilder VARD, is designed to unify the SeaQ suite of automation systems into a single user interface…

CGG's Sercel Buys ION Geophysical's Software Business

French seismic data firm CGG said Monday that its Sensing & Monitoring division Sercel had completed the acquisition of ION Geophysical Corporation’s (“ION”) software business.ION's software business includes Orca: a navigation system dedicated to streamers; Gator: a navigation system dedicated to OBN; Mesa: a set of tools for optimizing land and marine seismic crews; and Marlin: a software for managing simultaneous marine operations…

Reassessing Alaska's Energy Frontier

Less than 80 miles from Prudhoe Bay, home to the giant oil fields that feed the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, lies the site of USGS’ latest oil and gas assessment: the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and adjacent areas. Managed by the Bureau of Land Management, the NPR-A covers 22.8 million acres, more than the entire state of South Carolina. The new USGS assessment estimates 8.7 billion barrels of oil and 25 trillion cubic feet of natural gas resources.

New Product: BOREAS D70, FOG Intertial Navigation System

Advanced Navigation debuts the Boreas D70, a fiber-optic gyroscope (FOG) inertial navigation system (INS). According to the manufacturer, the technology is well suited to surveying, mapping, and navigation across subsea, marine, land and air applications.Advanced Navigation is featured in Marine Technology Reporter's "MTR100", profiling 100 leading technologies, companies and people in the subsea space. Read the 2022 edition here.“We are thrilled to expand the Boreas series with the D70.

NYK Supports Marine Environment Restoration Project Through Seaweed Bed Initiative

NYK recently provided a donation to Sea Vegetable LLC to support biodiversity enhancement through the development of cultivated seaweed beds. Utilizing Sea Vegetable’s advanced seaweed cultivation technology, NYK will assist in establishing cultivated seaweed beds along the coast of Oga City in Akita Prefecture, with the goal of ecological recovery and the regeneration of marine resources.A seaweed bed…

New Subsea Fiber-optic Cable to Link N. America & UK

TE SubCom has announced the commencement of the new Hibernia Express submarine cable system. The 4,600 km cable will provide the lowest-latency fiber-optic path between New York and London, connecting Halifax, Nova Scotia and Brean, UK, with terrestrial fiber to extend connectivity to the major metro areas. Hibernia Express will initially launch with 100 Gbps transmission capacity using TE SubCom’s C100 SLTE platform.